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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Let’s turn to the Conservatives now and the Shadow Cabinet might be in disarray today but the Conservatives of course are facing much turmoil of their own after a bitterly fought referendum campaign. The question now is who will succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister and how the party can of course heal itself and put itself back together.  I am joined now by Baroness Warsi, the former Cabinet Minister and Chair of the Conservative Party as well.  She is in Wakefield, a very good morning to you Baroness Warsi.  Let’s cut to the quick, who do you think should be the next Prime Minister, who should lead the party?

BARONESS WARSI: I think what we need now is a strong Prime Minister, somebody who will not only unite the party but unite the country and be a strong voice to negotiate for the European Union in relation to our exit but also a strong voice for the rest of the world to negotiate the best trade deals for the country.   

DM: Okay but who might that be?   Would it be Boris Johnson, does he fit those criteria for you?

BARONESS WARSI: We are very lucky in the Conservative party, we have such a massive pool of talent, we have so many people who could become the leader of the party, who could become Prime Minister.  Boris is one of them, there are many other names  we’ve heard – Theresa May, Sajid Javid, Nicki Morgan, Stephen Crabbe, the fact that we can name lots and lots of names right now, people who could be the leader of the Conservative party says a lot about the talent that we have within the party, the strength of the party and the fact that we are the right party to be in government right now.  

DM: But you mentioned Boris Johnson there, you say he might be acceptable but of course he led the Leave campaign, a Leave campaign you left because you thought it was becoming xenophobic.  

BARONESS WARSI: And if you had to ask me about a single person who I thought if I could wave a magic wand and say they are the right party to lead the party right now and lead the country it would be somebody who has got a great track record of fighting and winning elections, who wiped the floor really with everybody else during the debate, who is a genuine liberal, open minded, outward looking, has a potential to unite the country but sadly she is not a Member of  Parliament.  I think if I could choose one person it would be Ruth Davidson from Scotland but because she is not a Member of Parliament she is not in the running.  

DM: I see, so would you go along, just on Boris Johnson, with Amber Rudd’s assessment of him in that debate saying he may well be the life and soul of the party but he is not the kind of guy you’d want to drive you home?  

BARONESS WARSI: I think for me what is important is that it’s a person who is not just right for the party but is right for the country, somebody who can put together a strong team, somebody who will be taken seriously in Europe and around the world, somebody who has the potential to heal the country after some of the divisive and xenophobic campaigning and somebody who actually will present an outward looking positive vision for Britain, to say that the best days are ahead of us, somebody will exude that positive atmosphere that we genuinely now need to give us the stability both in our economy and in politics to take our country forward.

DM: It’s a real opportunity as well in terms of diversity and given the scale of the talent you describe there within the party isn’t it time to put a woman in charge?  You mentioned Ruth Davidson, she’s not an MP but there are plenty of others.  

BARONESS WARSI: I think for me more than gender, more than race, of course we have somebody like Sajid Javid in the party who would be a great face, we have never had an ethnic minority Prime Minister before – but I think rather than individuals and their characteristics, what’s important is: is this person right for the country?  Do they have the potential to not only unite the country but unite the party and be a strong voice for us?  These are going to be some tough negotiations ahead for us in the European Union, if you look at the noise that is already coming out about them wanting us to trigger Article 50, to get on with it, the undertone there is difficult and toxic and it is important that the person who goes in is the right person to negotiate on behalf of the United Kingdom, not just in the European Union but also with countries who are lining up to say we want to trade with you, countries like Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, Germany have said that they would like a preferential trade deal so we need to have the person who is right for the country rather than somebody who is just right for the party.

DM: But do you think that anyone who campaigned for Leave is disqualified because of that point I put to you, your assessment before the vote itself was that it veered into xenophobia on the Leave side and even those themselves who were campaigning for Leave who perhaps didn’t tend that way didn’t do anything to counter it, are they disqualified then in your view because they do have to reunify the UK?

BARONESS WARSI: I think there are individuals who were fighting the Leave campaign who I think would be wrong for Britain right now.  I also think there were good people in the Leave campaign who like me were raising their concerns about the campaign that was being run and it is important for them to now take the microphone and I’d like to hear from more people who led the Leave campaign to say, you know, as they are saying now that their figures on the NHS were probably not right and as they are saying that the promises we made about free movement, we are probably not going to be able to fully implement it – I also want them to come out and say that the campaigning was divisive and was xenophobic and give a commitment that future campaigning and the way that they intend to run this country will be united, will make people from all backgrounds feel like they belong.  I’ve spent most of the weekend, Dermot, talking to organisations, individuals and activists who work in the area of race hate crime, who monitor hate crime and they have shown some really disturbing early results from people being stopped in the street and saying look, we voted Leave, it’s time for you to leave and they are saying this to individuals and families who have been here for three, four, five generations.  The atmosphere on the street is not good, this is what I said before the campaign, that long after the political bus moves on we leave problems on our street so it is important for politicians to come out right now, talk about the vision that they have for the country, a united country and then take that forward for a positive vision of this country which is both stable and secure.

DM: I just wanted to ask you one last question, you mentioned the Leave campaign and what you wanted to hear from them about some of the things they said during it, Michael Gove said he shuddered at that Nigel Farage poster, would he fit the bill for you?  

BARONESS WARSI: I’m not even sure Michael’s in the running, he is certainly not a name that has been put forward and my own instinct is that Michael is not likely to want to be Prime Minister.  

DM: Okay, Baroness Warsi, thank you very much indeed.