Labour’s Denmark-Inspired Asylum Plan Is Landing With the Far Right

After a week in which prime minister Keir Starmer appeared to begin his slow-fade from leadership, big hitters in the cabinet are looking to make political capital. 

Health secretary Wes Streeting has already amped up his megawatt smile and cracked a handful of well-scripted, profoundly inoffensive jokes in response to claims he was seeking to topple the PM. Now it’s new home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s turn to score headlines by grasping that thorniest of political nettles: asylum. And she did it with a little help from Denmark.

Not satisfied with giving the world Lego and Ozempic, Denmark has now gifted Mahmood what she hopes will be Britain’s next top model for asylum. Whether it’ll also give her a hefty bump towards 10 Downing Street is yet to be seen.

The plan seems clearly designed to stop right-leaning Labour voters jumping ship. And that will excite some MPs who have been nervously eyeing the party’s perishing polling and looking to someone to keep their seats safe.

It’s a bit of a policy seesaw, however. Mahmood is keen to find a balance between proposals that will satisfy those concerned by growing numbers of asylum seekers as well as those disgusted by the performative cruelty of Reform.

Her new package borrows heavily from the many, many rounds of revisions Denmark has made to its migration laws in recent years. In 2019, centre-left prime minister Mette Frederiksen took power after making “zero refugees” a central plank of her pitch to voters. Since then, her government has reduced the number of asylum seekers to a 40-year low, with 95% of failed claimants deported.

In Denmark, unlike the UK, refugee status isn’t permanent. Instead, people must have that status reassessed at least every two years. Once a refugee’s country is deemed safe, the status is revoked. Permanent residence is available after eight years of refugee status, but only if the candidate has a long record of employment and fluent Danish. 

Mahmood has nicked all of that, with some adjustments. Refugee status will become temporary here too, and assessments will be every three years. But it’ll take 20 years before permanent settlement becomes an option for those who’ve arrived irregularly. And those who already have refugee status will now be up for review too – all 1.4 million of them.

Now, two decades is a long time to be in limbo, enough for babies to grow into adults. That raises the question of their status if they’re born in the UK. And even if they’re not, are we really looking to uproot teenagers who arrived here as toddlers? 

It’s that Windrush-shaped prospect that’s making some Labour MPs rebellious. As well as the fact that reversible refugee status will make it harder for people to get or maintain the kinds of jobs that will keep them from relying on the public purse. 

But Mahmood has also mildly sweetened the deal by introducing what every immigration charity has called the only fix to Britain’s asylum woes: safe and legal routes. Not many, mind, and they’re highly restrictive, but she’ll be hoping the promise of more will soften the back-bench sceptics. (The Guardian reports one minister is on resignation-watch over the more draconian aspects of her plans.)

Other proposals include restricting aspects of the Human Rights Act as well as seizing jewellery and other valuables from those who arrive by small boat to fund hotel accommodation. That grim idea – shaking down those fleeing war – has the shape of one deliberately designed to be dropped to appease critics down the road. Let’s hope, anyway.

And that road, from splashy Sunday paper announcements to law, is long and winding, with a bill only expected next year. What matters for Labour now, though, is whether the tune Mahmood’s whistling will land on the right ears. 

It definitely landed on far-right ears. “The home secretary sounds like a Reform supporter,” said Nigel Farage. Tommy Robinson was also happy about the plans. “Well done patriots,” he said.