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Theresa May has sacked Robert Halfon, the apprenticeships minister, from her Cabinet as she continues to carry out a post-General Election reshuffle.

The MP for Harlow said he was asked to leave by the PM and revealed that she did not give a reason for her decision.

Mr Halfon said: "The Prime Minister has to make these decisions; I wasn't really given a reason".

Justice minister Sir Oliver Heald, Brexit minister David Jones and Defence minister Mike Penning were also sacked on Monday night.

Mrs May also appointed the following MPs as ministers of state:

Nick Hurd as a Home Office minister

Dominic Raab as justice minister

Anne Milton as education minister

Robert Goodwill as education minister

Baroness Anelay as Brexit minister

Claire Perry as business minister

Boris Johnson's brother Jo Johnson was re-appointed as Universities and Science minister.

Mr Halfon formerly served as parliamentary private secretary to Evening Standard editor George Osborne when he was in Government.

He was thought of as a widely respected figure in the Conservative Party and said he "loved the job" and had an "absolute passion" for apprenticeships and skills.

Mr Halfon said he visited "outstanding" apprentices up and down the country, that he was proud to help deliver a record 900,000 apprenticeships and to have passed the Technical and Further Education Act.

Mr Halfon said apprenticeships should be the Tories' "major number one offering" to young people to counter Labour's pledge to scrap university tuition fees.

He added: "One thing I'm not going to do is I'm not the kind of person to start criticising the Prime Minister but I do believe that we need to start offering things to young people and one of those things is apprenticeships, technical skills, and to give them that ladder.

"We are the party of the ladder."

On Monday afternoon, Mrs May met with her reshuffled Cabinet in Downing Street for the first time since her catastrophic election gamble backfired.

It was followed by a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers in the Palace of Westminster where she told MPs: “I got us into this mess and I’m going to get us out of it.”

Mrs May’s Cabinet reshuffle has seen Damian Green, the former Work and Pensions Secretary, appointed First Secretary of State - a title generally associated with the role of deputy prime minister.

Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom was appointed leader of the House of Commons and was replaced in her role by Michael Gove who was sacked last year by Mrs May.

Her five most senior ministers - including Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – are carrying on in their current positions.