In more than 20 years reporting on the Home Office, I have witnessed its unholy chaos more times than I can count.

I’ve looked on, aghast, as it admitted deporting completely innocent members of the Windrush generation.

I’ve watched a Home Secretary admit he had freed 1,000 foreign prisoners without looking into whether they should be deported.

I’ve seen the department split in two after being declared ‘not fit for purpose’.

And I’ve chronicled how ministers spent years fighting legal challenges so they could send small-boat migrants to Rwanda, only for the scheme to be inexplicably dropped before it came into force.

But never have I witnessed a rancorous row play out in public between a Home Secretary and one of her ministerial team. Shabana Mahmood’s spat with migration and citizenship minister Mike Tapp has, astonishingly, led her to effectively block him from the department.

Mr Tapp – angling for a job from Andy Burnham – wrote a newspaper article that undermined Ms Mahmood’s immigration reforms and cosied up to the ascendant Left of the party.

Ms Mahmood justifiably asked Keir Starmer to sack Mr Tapp, but her request was rebuffed. That was not the end of this extraordinary clash, however, as the junior minister posted ‘I won’t be intimidated’ on social media and appeared to threaten to publish documents backing up his version of events.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood asked Sir Keir Starmer to sack Mike Tapp for disloyalty over an unauthorised newspaper article undermining her immigration reforms 

Mr Tapp (pictured) has now effectively been blocked from the department by Ms Mahmood

So it was made known by Ms Mahmood that Mr Tapp was being put on the naughty step at Marsham Street – he would no longer be able to access sensitive papers or hold meetings without her say-so. Nothing like this has ever happened before in the Home Office, or any other government department.

What does this say about the state of the Labour Government?

The Home Office deals with some of the most vital matters in British life, including counter-terrorism, border security and policing.

And yet its ministers are squabbling like primary school children and trying to impress the incoming headteacher.

It runs the risk of mistakes being made and important decisions being delayed.

This country is genuinely being put at risk by this vulgar in-fighting. It makes it more likely – not less – that there will be yet another colossal Home Office blunder.