If it’s not Keir, it’s Carns | Mike Tapp MP
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this special edition of Coffee House Shorts, Noa Hoffman is joined by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office minister Mike Tapp. On a day of high drama in Westminster, with Wes Streeting widely expected to challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership tomorrow, Mike sets out exactly why he’s sticking with the Prime Minister for the sake of stability. However, he does make the concession that waiting in the wings is a particularly impressive former military man, Al Carns, who – in the absence of Keir Starmer – might well be what the country is looking for.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.2 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Noah Hoffman, political correspondent here at The Spectator, |
| 0:40.6 | and I'm delighted on a day of very, very high drama to be joined by Home Office Minister for Citizenship and Immigration, Mike Tap. |
| 0:51.6 | Hello, lovely to be here. Welcome, Mike. So there are no shortage of topics to talk about. |
| 0:59.3 | Let's just cut straight to the chase. |
| 1:01.8 | That was the most awkward and painful King's speech ever to be seen in the history of this country. |
| 1:08.7 | Do you agree? |
| 1:09.6 | Well, I think it's obviously bad timing for the |
| 1:14.4 | turmoil and chaos, to be quite frank, that we've seen over the last few weeks, but particularly |
| 1:20.7 | the last few days. So I can see why that opinion would be there. Of course, government is in place. Prime Minister's still Prime Minister. And it's important that we set out the agenda going forward for next Parliament. And that's what's been done today. And I'm extremely keen from a ministerial point of view, but also as an MP to make sure that we pursue the agenda that's been set out and |
| 1:45.7 | deliver for the country because look, we did inherit a difficult situation and it is like |
| 1:54.0 | turning around a tanker and people need and want to see and feel change. And to be quite frank, we don't make that sort of progress and speed things up with this |
| 2:06.0 | sort of chaos that's going on at the moment, which is why, by the way, I've been really |
| 2:11.0 | staunch in my defence of Prime Minister. |
| 2:13.5 | I'm very loyal that's in my blood. |
| 2:16.7 | And Kirstama is two years in and I do want to see him complete that term and take us into the next general election. |
| 2:24.1 | It's so important that we don't have that churn because the way this could pan out could actually be a complete disaster if the prime minister doesn't stay. You know, we could well have another |
... |
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