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.

Sam Gyimah

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

Sam Gyimah

Born in the UK, brought up in Ghana, it was a sort of childhood of hardship and difficulty.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

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

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

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

Sam Gyimah

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

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

Parliament is a tribal place. So the most difficult thing is to be labelled disloyal, even if you think you are standing up for a principle. The rejection is quite strong.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

I was born in the UK and brought up by my single mother in Ghana, where being black was unexceptional. As an adult, I learnt to succeed in white Britain, going from a state sixth form, to Oxford university, to a well-paid job in the City, to becoming the first black Conservative MP to attend the cabinet.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

Everyone who's rational should have an interest in science. The future of our planet depends on our understanding of science... It's something I value immensely.

Sam Gyimah

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

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah

I am instinctively wary of identity politics. Ultimately, no two black men are the same, any more than two white men are the same.

Sam Gyimah

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.

Sam Gyimah