Every election cycle there has been some manoeuvre against me, so at some level I am used to it.

As a black member of parliament and minister for nearly a decade, I was determined not to be defined by my race. I didn’t want to be ‘the black politician‘, when being black is just a part of who I am.

Westminster is gripped by a fanatical race towards a cliff-edge Brexit and nobody is stopping to think about the impact it would have on the everyday lives of the people we serve as politicians.

The more painful incidents of racism I chose to forget, to suffer in silence, or use humour to deflect rather than confront. I didn’t want to be the angry black man.

As a child, my mother would read to me late into the night. I didn’t enjoy it at the time but she always used to say that the inheritance she was going to leave us was a good education.

Leaving people worse off financially is a Brexit outcome nobody supports, whether they voted leave or remain.

I am an outcast in the Conservative party. But that’s Brexit. It has divided families. The country is divided. This is a huge fault line.

The issue for me is not just Brexit. It is beyond Brexit – how you conduct politics and the veering towards populism and English nationalism.

Nothing of substance is being achieved or even proposed, while the country remains trapped in the Kafka-esque misery that Brexit has become.

Parliament is relentless, it never stops.

One point leavers and remainers agree on is that if there had never been a referendum, and this deal had been proposed as the basis for our country‘s future, it would have rightly been rejected by parliament and the public.

Brexit is an immensely complex national challenge encompassing issues from sovereignty and trade to security in an increasingly interdependent world.

I voted to remain because I thought it was costly and complicated to leave the EU, and that is clearly still the case. But there are opportunities and challenges.

The big thing in Ghana is a strong sense that if you failed in your education that was it. There was no system… to give you support later on, there really wasn’t much of a second chance so there was a big emphasis in… this is your life chance and you have got to take it.

I’ve been involved in the Conservative party for two decades. I’ve fought for the party. I have an unusual background – I’m not your typical Tory recruit. I’ve spent a long time evangelising about why people should look at the Conservative party seriously.

The sheer drop in sterling since 2016 is only a taste of what’s to come if we continue down the destructive route of a no-deal Brexit.

Much of what we buy relies on products from the EU – purchases that British importers make in euros.

A society in which people feel they have a legitimate right to stop someone expressing their views on campus simply because they are unfashionable or unpopular is rather chilling.

My job is to help parents give their children the best start in life.

The UKRI visa program, it’s going to make it easier for researchers to come to the U.K. and do their work.

It’s a bit bold to go around saying, ‘Prime Minister, if there’s an opportunity I really want to be in this department,’ but that’s what I did.

Universities have a big role to play… making it very clear to their counterparts, their networks, that the U.K. is not walking away from the world. We still value multilateral cooperation, we still see the EU as a significant partner.

That’s my upbringing. Try, if it doesn’t work out, try again. It was the same thing with Parliament.

The Tory Party only talks to Brexiteers. It almost demonises… It comes across as dismissive of those who are not.

The astonishing thing for me is that I had a career before politics and I never thought about my colour.