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SOPHY RIDGE: After calling an election to increase her majority and then losing seats, the Prime Minister was forced to reshuffle her team. Robert Halfon was one Minister sent for the chop and he joins us now here in the studio, hello, good to see you.

ROBERT HALFON: Good morning.

SR: It feels like we should start of course with the disaster that struck in Grenfell Tower, 58 people missing presumed dead, huge questions remain unanswered from everything from the cladding to sprinklers in the building, have these people been failed by the government?

ROBERT HALFON: Well it’s a terrible tragedy and every time you watch the news you want to weep, all those people who have suffered, families of those who have lost their lives. I think what it shows is that the Conservative party has to be the party of social reform, we have to be the party of redistribution, and I’ll explain what that means, we have to be the party of social justice, we have to be the party for workers and we have to show people that actually our main mission is to help those who are disadvantaged, who live in low incomes.

SR: Do you think that the response to the tragedy in the past days following it has perhaps shown that many people don’t see the Conservative party in the way that you describe? That people are taking to the streets to protest because they believe that the Conservative party are more bothered about the rich and not the poor?

ROBERT HALFON: I think whenever there is a tragedy like this the response is always difficult and you always need to find out what has occurred but not just with the Grenfell tragedy, there is I believe an underlying feeling amongst many people across the country that the Conservatives are not so much the party of the rich but the Conservatives are not on the side of those of low incomes. The Prime Minister when she arrived in Downing Street made a powerful speech that reached out to millions and I think it is one of the reasons why at the beginning her popularity was high, which said she wanted a Britain that worked for everyone and said that she wanted to reach out to those who were disadvantaged. It was one of the reasons why I supported her and we’ve got to get back to that.

SR: Do you think you have gone away from it then since that speech?

ROBERT HALFON: Well I think there are a host of things that come up in government. The government is like a big ship that sails to a destination, you have storms every day, sometimes you have to veer right, veer left and we’ve had these terrible terrorism outrages as well but I think this has to be our central mission. If the Conservative party is to survive and to ever get a healthy majority and I don’t just mean a working majority or a coalition, we have to show all the people that we are on all of the people’s sides whatever background that they come from. That’s why I talk about social justice and redistribution, so what I mean by redistribution is not necessarily the Labour term but we say that we raise extra money by cutting taxes for the well off, we say that we raise extra monies by cutting business taxes, Corporation tax and actually that’s true, the figures show that. I think what we need to do is distribute those extra monies raised from cutting taxes for the well off or cutting taxes for business and focus that money in a special redistribution fund to help our poorest communities, particularly the kind of people who live in Grenfell Tower or lived in Grenfell Tower and elsewhere across our country.

SR: Earlier on this week you had some pretty harsh words I guess for the future of the Conservative party. If we can just have a look at what you did say, you said that the Conservative party is on death row, I mean that is a pretty forlorn statement about where you believe your party is heading, are things really that bad?

ROBERT HALFON: Well I think of course we increased our vote share but if you increase vote share in very safe areas but actually lose seats or have hyper-marginal seats up and down the country and do so badly in London, I think we need to ask searching questions and I think this is the time to do it. To be fair, the Prime Minister has done that, she came to meet the Conservative MPs last week and I think she recognises the challenges that we face as a party but it is our duty, I think we need a fundamental rebranding, I think we need to look fundamentally at our narrative and I also think we need to look fundamentally at our message and our policies.

SR: Is Theresa May really the person who is going to be capable of doing this because she just called this election, lost seats, is she really the person who can…?

ROBERT HALFON: Well I back the Prime Minister. As I said I was literally inspired and I think millions of people were inspired when she first stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street and …

SR: Are you still inspired by her?

ROBERT HALFON: I think the Prime Minister … we have to have the Prime Minister doing the job. I think she recognises the problems, she said she is going to get us out of the mess that occurred in the Conservative party and I believe her.

SR: Okay, there are reports in the papers today that some MPs are preparing to sign letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister, that they are giving her ten days in which to turn things around. What are you honestly picking up on the back benches, what’s the news?

ROBERT HALFON: Well I’m not one of those people, my view is very simple. I don’t think … we could have Alexander the Great, we could have Archangel Gabriel as leader of the Conservative party but unless we fundamentally change and work out what we stand for, show people that we are on the side of the most disadvantaged, show people that we are the real workers party in terms of wages, in terms of jobs and skills, in terms of welfare, in terms of rights, in terms of workers services like energy bills, then we won’t achieve what we want to do whoever is the leader.

SR: That’s what your view is, are you picking up from some of your colleagues though that they have rather less patience?

ROBERT HALFON: Well there are always murmurings here and there at any time but I think most of the party wants Theresa May to continue, I think the country obviously is in a difficult way at the present time in terms of security, in terms of the tragedy that we’ve just witnessed over the past few days and I think it would be wrong to change the leader.

SR: How long do you give her?

ROBERT HALFON: As I say, I think it would be wrong to change the leader. I think what the country needs is, dare I say it, to use a phrase is some form of stability because I think the country deserves it, the country needs it.

SR: Strong and stable leadership, who thought you’d be here saying that again? Robert Halfon, thank you very much for coming on the show and giving us your thoughts.