Huge Labour row erupts as scramble for Andy Burnham's Cabinet rages on
Huge Labour row erupts as scramble for Andy Burnham's Cabinet rages on
Sir Keir Starmer refuses to sack minister as Ed Miliband vies for chancellor job.
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Add us as preferred source Comments live By Aaron Newbury, Political Correspondent, Katie Harris, Senior Political Correspondent 13:19, Fri, Jun 26, 2026 Updated: 14:02, Fri, Jun 26, 2026 
Civil war erupted in the Labour Party as contenders jostled for jobs in Andy Burnham's cabinet, and Sir Keir Starmer was urged to sack a minister.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood reportedly demanded that the Prime Minister dismiss immigration minister Mike Tapp after he broke ranks on immigration reform.
But the PM, who announced his own resignation this week, refused. Andy Burnham, Sir Keir's likely successor, was meanwhile reportedly considering making Ed Miliband his chancellor.
2 hours ago13:19 Katie HarrisStarmer taking advice on Tapp
Sir Keir Starmer is taking advice on whether Mike Tapp broke Government protocol.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has called for the migration minister to be sacked after he wrote an article suggesting foreign care workers should be exempt from her plans to tighten settlement rules.
The PM’s official spokesman said he was “taking advice in the usual way” on whether Mr Tapp broke the ministerial code by writing the piece.
The spokesman added that it was ultimately up to Sir Keir whether Mr Tapp’s actions would be considered a breach of the code.
4 hours ago11:42 Katie HarrisTapp to be denied access to sensitive documents and meetings without approval
Migration minister Mike Tapp will be denied access to sensitive documents and meetings without approval from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, it is understood, in an emerging row over whether he broke with Government protocol.
A Government source said: “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.”
4 hours ago11:39 Katie HarrisLabour grandee backs Miliband for chancellor
Harriet Harman has backed Ed Miliband to be Andy Burnham’s chancellor.
The Labour peer said the Energy Secretary and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper were the “strongest candidates” for the post.
On who should take the role, she told Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast: “I’m caught between Ed and Yvette, but I think, marginally, Ed.”
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Farage hails council by-election wins
Nigel Farage has taken to X after Reform UK won seven council by-elections.
7 hours ago08:53 Aaron NewburyGood news! Reform won 7 council by-elections last night.
\u2014 Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 26, 2026
Take the St Helens Town Centre Ward, last up in 2022. We went from 0% to 39%, smashing Labour. The Conservatives got 3.6%. They are no longer a national party.
In Wilnecote Ward in Tamworth, we thrashed the\u2026
Tapp hits back!
Labour's Mike Tapp has come out swinging after his boss demanded Keir Starmer boot him out after he broke ranks on migration reforms.
Last night Shabana Mahmood was reportedly furious with the junior minister after he called for a watering down of her flagship policy.
Sir Keir refused to sack the mutinous minister who wrote in a national newspaper that care workers should be left out of restrictions to citizenship.
This morning Tapp, the migration minister, came out swinging, vowing "I won't be intimidated", after Ms Mahmood urged Sir Keir to swing the axe and cut him loose.
7 hours ago08:13 Aaron NewburyEd Miliband becomes frontrunner for chancellor after major Labour power move
Ed Miliband has received a major boost after winning the backing of a top trade union boss in the race to become Andy Burnham's chancellor. It comes just days after Mr Burnham declared he would run to be the next prime minister following Sir Keir Starmer's resignation.
The former Manchester mayor rapidly emerged as the frontrunner to replace Sir Keir even before winning the Makerfield by-election. Speculation has been rampant about who the wannabe PM will bring into his cabinet, with Mr Miliband seen as a favourite due to his close ties with the Burnham campaign.
Now the boss of the country's biggest trade union, Unison, has thrown her weight behind the Energy Secretary. Andrea Egan is said to want Mr Miliband instead of former health secretary Wes Streeting, a rival contender on the Right of the party.
8 hours ago08:03 Aaron NewburyKillers and rapists among thousands of criminals to be released early from UK jails
Rapists, killers and sex fiends are to be released early from jail as part of Labour's plan to stop prisons running out of space.
A legal change will uncage some offenders convicted of the most serious crimes after they have served just half their sentence.
With jails bursting at the seams, under-fire Justice Secretary David Lammy has waved through changes that will see sex offenders, killers convicted of manslaughter, GBH thugs and rapists eligible for the new early release rules from September this year, according to reports.
Tapp was not 'wise' to write unauthorised article
Migration minister Mike Tapp was not “wise” to write an unauthorised article about Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s planned reforms to the immigration system, a government whip said.
The Home Secretary had called for the Prime Minister to dismiss Mr Tapp after he wrote a Times article suggesting foreign care workers should be exempt from her plans to tighten settlement rules.
Jake Richards, a justice minister and whip, told Times Radio: “There is a consultation that the Home Secretary set out last year about exactly the details of immigration rules and the asylum system that we are reforming over the coming months.
“That consultation is continuing. The Home Secretary will set out the plans over the next few weeks.
“Mike’s article in The Times sets out what his views are and some of the issues that he in the Home Office is exploring.
“It’s not particularly wise in my mind for junior ministers to set that out publicly. We are part of a team, he has done that and we will deal with that as a Government.”
8 hours ago07:49 Katie HarrisMinister says it is up to Starmer whether to sack Tapp
Justice minister Jake Richards said it would be up to the Prime Minister whether to sack Mike Tapp.
“The Prime Minister makes decisions as to whether the ministerial code or collective responsibility is broken,” he said.
“Mike is a friend of mine, he’s someone who served his country before coming into Parliament, he’s someone I have an enormous amount of respect for.
“My view is that, as a very junior minister myself, we work as a team and I would always work with my Secretary of State, and if my Secretary of State was Shabana Mahmood, that would be even more so, because she’s a formidable Home Secretary.”
8 hours ago07:38 Katie HarrisMiliband would be 'disaster' as chancellor
Ed Miliband would be a "disaster" as chancellor, the boss of Iceland has said.
Lord Walker, who is also the Government’s cost of living tsar, told BBC Newsnight: “He’d be a disaster.”
The Labour peer added: “Climate change is real. I believe in science. But I think how we’re going about it is far too ideological. I think it’s putting unfair pressure on households and on bill payers in a very regressive way.
“I think if Ed were to come in, it would be baulked at by the business communities, the markets would freak out.”
8 hours ago07:19 Katie Harris"He'd be a disaster..."
\u2014 BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 25, 2026
Lord Walker, the government's Cost of Living Champion, says that the prospect of Ed Miliband as Chancellor "would be baulked at by the business communities [and] the markets would freak out".#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/OjcDZ1ikTz
JK Rowling mocks Labour over claim Burnham will be 'first woman PM'
JK Rowling mocked Labour after a senior figure in the party described Andy Burnham as their "first woman prime minister".
The insider told The Spectator that the Makerfield MP would have an “unashamedly female agenda” focused on “health, education, family finances and issues like safer streets, social care, online safety for kids”.
But the Harry Potter author said: "Great news. The Labour Party has finally found a woman they fancy as leader. It's a man who'll be 'a female PM in all but sex.'
"A senior figure in the party actually thought that was a good thing to say out loud."
9 hours ago06:55 Katie HarrisGreat news. The Labour Party has finally found a woman they fancy as leader. It's a man who'll be 'a female PM in all but sex.'
\u2014 J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 25, 2026
A senior figure in the party actually thought that was a good thing to say out loud.
\u270d\ufe0f @ShippersUnbound pic.twitter.com/a8LA6IMdRw
More military barracks to be used to house migrants
Almost 4,000 migrants are set to be moved into three more former military bases – including one where Prince William trained as a pilot.
The Home Office wants to use MOD Bicester, MOD Barnham and MOD Linton-on-Ouse to house asylum seekers as ministers try to close hotels.
But campaigners in Linton-on-Ouse argued in 2022 that the village was completely unsuitable after former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel drew up plans to relocate 1,500 migrants to the site.
And the move is set to spark another furious backlash, as communities continue to bear the brunt of the small boat crisis.
9 hours ago06:53 Katie HarrisNo 10 refuses to sack minister
Downing Street has resisted Shabana Mahmood's demand to sack an immigration minister for allegedly breaching the ministerial code.
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The Home Secretary had called for the Prime Minister to fire Mike Tapp after he wrote an article suggesting foreign care workers should be exempt from her plans to tighten settlement rules.
But the Home Office minister remained in post in a stand-off last night.
