Home Office left in chaos as Keir Starmer refuses to sack junior minister who Shabana Mahmood has accused of disloyalty
Keir Starmer is locked in a spectacular deadlock with Shabana Mahmood after she blocked his bid to sack the immigration minister.
The Home Secretary has asked the Prime Minister to sack Mike Tapp over an article in which he called for foreign care workers to be exempt from the latest crackdown on immigration.
Sources close to Ms Mahmood claimed the ambitious minister took ideas she had thought up and ‘briefed them as her own in a bid to win a job in (Andy Burnham’s) new administration’.
Ms Mahmood believes her Times article breached the collective responsibility requirement in the Ministerial Code.
The Home Office told reporters that Mr Tapp was ‘expected to be dismissed for breaching the Ministerial Code’.
But No 10 said Mr Tapp, who has been Sir Keir’s cheerleader in recent months, ‘remains in charge’.
The Prime Minister is said to be furious with Mahmood, who told him to resign following last month’s disastrous local elections. A senior Labor source said Sir Keir even considered sacking Ms Mahmood last month and was warned it could bring down the government.
Whitehall sources said Mr Tapp was not even referred to the Prime Minister’s Ministerial Code adviser, Sir Lawrie Magnus. Sir Keir is the final arbiter of the rules.
Standoff: Keir Starmer refuses to sack minister Shabana Mahmood accused of disloyalty
In the balance: Mike Tapp’s future now subject to Whitehall power struggle
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘The Labor government has descended into chaos and infighting; Shabana Mahmood’s junior minister is openly challenging Burnham in a brazen bid to gain a place in her cabinet.
‘There is not a single thought that protects national interests here. All these Labor ministers care about is their own personal ambitions and competing for government jobs. This is something to be despised.’
Mr. Burnham has signaled that he supports Ms. Mahmood’s broad push to control immigration. But Labor MPs are under pressure to water down plans to raise the threshold for claiming indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from five to 10 years for the wave of immigrants following the pandemic.
In his article for The Times, Mr Tapp explained that he was working to ‘develop a better approach than a blanket extension for everyone from five to 10 years’.
He wrote: ‘I have a strong belief that those who come to the UK on a care worker visa, who play by the rules and make a real contribution to our care system, should not have to wait any longer to apply for settlement. That’s what I’m working hard to solve.”
It said exemptions to the ILR changes would apply to anyone arriving via the health and care visa route, of which a total of 616,266 people were granted between 2022 and 2024.
More than half of them were family members of workers, known as dependents.
Analysis by the Home Office and its immigration advisory committee estimates that around 200,000 care workers and their dependents will apply for permanent settlement between now and 2030 if the five-year route remains unchanged.
A Government source said: ‘The Home Secretary has asked the Prime Minister to sack Mike Tapp for breaches of the Ministerial Code.’
Mr Tapp was asked for comment but did not respond.
