Migration and citizenship minister Mike Tapp has said he won’t be intimidated by Shabana Mahmood after the Home Secretary asked for him to be sacked yesterday. All played out in public…
Tapp penned a Times op-ed discussing plans he had made to exempt care workers from Mahmood’s ILR changes. Sources close to Mahmood say he broke the ministerial code in doing so by breaching collective responsibility and added: “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.” All guns blazing…
Starmer has however so far refused to sack the junior minister, who has been leading a zany campaign to force a general election if there is a change of Prime Minister. Tapp has hit back this morning:
‘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!
Oh and I’m at a wedding in San Francisco, but happy to talk more when I’m back (I promise that’s the Golden Gate Bridge hidden by the fog)’
The incident may have an impact on Mahmood’s likelihood on getting into the Treasury as Chancellor under a Burnham administration. Anti-Mahmoodites are jumping up and down to point out her brashness in this case…
UPDATE: Mahmood allies push back…
“Mike Tapp wrote a piece in a national newspaper freelancing on policy without the knowledge or agreement of the Home Secretary or her team.
“He took proposals that the Home Secretary was working on, and briefed them as his own.
“In doing so, he has broken collective responsibility and has breached the Ministerial Code. Now is he threatening to leak sensitive documents. The Home Secretary has asked the Prime Minister to sack him.”
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”