Mahmood in standoff with Starmer over sacking of her junior minister

Shabana Mahmood is locked in an extraordinary standoff with Keir Starmer after Downing Street refused to immediately sack her junior minister for breaching the ministerial code. The home secretary has demanded that Mike Tapp, the immigration minister, should be sacked for writing an unauthorised article calling for overseas care workers to be exempt from hardline immigration reforms. But No 10 has so far refused to officially sack Tapp, saying “no decision” has been made by the prime minister. The row comes as senior Labour figures tussle for leading roles in Andy Burnham’s administration which is expected to take power in No 10 as early as 17 July. Tapp wrote in an article for the Times it was his “strong belief” that migrant care workers should not have to wait longer to apply for permanent settlement in the UK. Mahmood was unaware he had written the article, which a source close to her insisted was written “to try to win a job in the new administration”. Mike Tapp, the immigration minister, wrote an article for the Times about migrant care workers without Shabana Mahmood’s knowledge. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images It is understood Tapp was involved in ministerial discussions about exempting care workers from the proposed reforms to “indefinite leave to remain”. It is alleged Tapp took an idea proposed in those discussions and attempted to pass it off as his own in the Times article. …