Politics Home Article | Migration Minister Says He “Won’t Be Intimidated” By Home Secretary

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants the prime minister to sack migration minister Mike Tapp (Alamy)

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mahmood have clashed over whether Tapp should keep his job as parliamentary under-secretary of state for migration and citizenship, which he has held since last September.

Tapp wrote a piece for The Times on Thursday in which he said he supported care workers being made exempt from Home Office plans to change visa rules for migrants already living in the UK.

The plans, which have been criticised by many Labour MPs, include doubling the time it takes for most migrants to qualify for permanent residence from five to 10 years.

Mahmood, who has spearheaded the plans, wants Tapp to be sacked for breaching ministerial rules of collective responsibility, with a Home Office source telling reporters on Thursday that Tapp was expected to be fired.

“He has taken possible ideas that the home secretary and her team were working on, and briefed them as his own to try to win a job in the new administration,” they said.

Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to take over from Starmer as Labour leader and PM in the coming weeks, has said he supports the “broad thrust” of Mahmood’s proposals, but has previously said he would be against applying the changes retrospectively.

However, the prime minister has ultimate power over ministerial appointments and dismissals, and No 10 briefed out on Thursday that Tapp is “still in his job” and there is no intention to fire him.

On Friday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson told journalists that Starmer was taking advice on whether Tapp broke government protocol.

Tapp has been a loyal supporter of Starmer, and before the prime minister announced his resignation, insisted that if the PM was ousted, the country should go to the polls in a general election to stop the “constant churn” of politicians.

In a post on X on Friday morning, Tapp said: “It’s gone from ‘he broke the ministerial code’ to ‘he stole my idea’.

“I have put my views across on a policy I’ve been working on for months (I have the receipts) in an op ed in The Times. Give it a read, and let’s continue to discuss.

“I won’t be intimidated to drop my views. Stay classy!”

Accompanying the post with a selfie, Tapp added that he was at a wedding in San Francisco, but “happy to talk more when I’m back”.

Justice Minister Jake Richards told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the debate over the proposed immigration rules “should happen perhaps more privately than Mike – who is a friend and a good man – has shown in the last 24 hours”.

He urged other MPs to “take a deep breath” and criticised “some of the silliness we’ve seen over the last 24 hours”.