Downing Street Keeps Mike Tapp in Post as He Challenges 15-Year Care Visa Wait

2 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jun 25

Downing Street said Immigration Minister Mike Tapp will stay in office, rejecting Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's push to sack him after his public break with government policy.
Tapp wrote in the Times that care workers already in Britain should be exempt from plans to lengthen settlement waits, directly challenging proposals that would make health and social care visa holders wait 15 years.
Mahmood argues the article breached collective responsibility under the ministerial code because she learned of it only when approached for comment and believes Tapp aired internal policy work as his own.
The clash lands days before the Immigration and Asylum Bill is due in the Commons, where ministers also want to double the standard route to permanent residence from 5 to 10 years.
The dispute adds to pressure on a government already facing Labour criticism that the retrospective migration changes are 'un-British' and 'moving the goalposts' as Keir Starmer prepares to leave office.