The worship of youth has diminished - perhaps generally - in recent years.

We need a new British business bank with a clean balance sheet and an ability to expand lending rapidly to the manufacturers, exporters and high-growth companies that power our economy. Today I can announce we will have one.

I made friends with a boy who was a communist when I was 13 and that broadened my political views, but it also brought me into conflict with my father who was very Right-wing.

My job is to support businesses, that means promoting British commerce in the big emerging markets that have been neglected in the past. It means keeping Britain open to inward investors, trade and skilled workers. It means cutting red tape which is suffocating growing companies which create jobs.

As a girl, I abandoned a promising singing career due to violent harassment by Islamists.

My dad was a businessman, and he would say, 'Work for free at the best company. Don't get paid a lot of money to work with the worst people.' And that's exactly how I see my career.

Whenever someone asks me for career advice, I always tell them to find a mentor. Find someone who has done what you want to do, and study the way they got there.

With every coach you work with, you learn something. Then, at the end of your career, when you become a trainer, you take something from every coach that you think is useful for you.