Sir Keir Starmer has declined Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s request to sack immigration minister Mike Tapp, after Tapp wrote an unauthorised newspaper column arguing that foreign care workers should be exempt from planned visa changes.
The row erupted when Tapp used an article in The Times to publicly oppose Mahmood’s plan to double the leave-to-remain timeframe for migrant care workers from five to ten years. “It is my strong belief that those who have come to the United Kingdom on care worker visas who have played by the rules and have genuinely contributed to our care system should not be required to wait longer to apply for settlement,” he wrote.
“Keir Starmer has refused Shabana Mahmood’s demand to fire Mike Tapp after he wrote an unauthorised article on care worker visas.”
Mahmood reacted furiously. A Home Office source told the BBC the article amounted to “freelancing on policy” and a breach of collective responsibility and the Ministerial Code. The source added: “Mike Tapp is expected to be sacked … 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.”
But Downing Street pushed back sharply. A spokesperson said “it is not for any individual secretary of state to determine whether the Ministerial Code has been followed, it is a matter for the prime minister alone”. Starmer’s team confirmed Tapp had been “reminded of his obligations” under the code, but made clear the prime minister had confidence in both Mahmood and Tapp.
Tapp hit back on X, writing: “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. … I won’t be intimidated to drop my views. Stay classy!” He later added that he had “a lot of respect for the home secretary and will continue working hard for our country”.
Outside Westminster, campaigners and unions backed Tapp’s stance. Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, called the plan to extend the settlement wait “cruel and unconscionable, especially by a Labour government”. Gavin Edwards, head of social care at Unison, described it as “a slap in the face” for workers who had “propped up a vital public service”. He warned that abuse was rife under the current visa sponsorship system: “The level of exploitation and workplace abuse that this particular group of workers has experienced has been off the scale.”
Migrant care workers close to the five-year goal said they were devastated by the proposed change. One, who came from Zimbabwe in 2022, said she had been forced to live in a wooden shed and use a bucket as a toilet. The government now faces a stand-off between a Home Secretary demanding discipline and a minister who insists he has the receipts—and a growing number of voices calling the policy itself into question.