Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is preparing to dismiss Migration Minister Mike Tapp following a breach of the ministerial code. Tapp published an unauthorised article in The Times that challenged the government’s immigration reforms.
Mike Tapp, MP for Dover and Deal, wrote the article without official clearance. In the piece, he argued that migrant care workers should receive a special exemption from new rules on permanent settlement, openly contradicting Mahmood’s planned immigration overhaul.
The unauthorised article pushed for quicker settlement rights for migrant care workers, going against official government policy and revealing internal deliberations.
Publishing unpublished government policy ideas without permission breaches collective cabinet responsibility and the ministerial code. Insiders have emphasised that Tapp’s actions crossed a clear line, undermining the Home Secretary and her team’s carefully managed reforms.
The planned sacking comes at a sensitive time for the government. Mahmood is leading a major overhaul of the immigration system, while the Labour Party is undergoing leadership changes following Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation. This incident risks adding to political instability.
A Whitehall source told reporters, “Mike Tapp is expected to be sacked for breaching the ministerial code. 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.”
Originally published by UKNIP.
