Shabana Mahmood to introduce legislation on migration to take on Reform
The Home Secretary this week visited Denmark which has one of the toughest asylum and immigration systems in Europe.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to introduce new legislation to overhaul Britain’s asylum system as she pushes for bold action on migration to blunt the appeal of Reform UK.
She will say the Government must cut migration or risk opening the door to the right who would divide communities with the kind of anti-immigration raids seen in the US.
Ms Mahmood, who faces the prospect of a backbench revolt over the plans, will argue next week that migration reform is consistent with Labour values.
According to a Government source, she is expected to say Britain will always provide sanctuary to people genuinely fleeing war and danger, but the generosity of the asylum system is attracting people from across the world, funding human traffickers and encouraging false asylum claims.
This week, the Home Secretary visited Denmark which has one of the toughest asylum and immigration systems in Europe.
Denmark’s Social Democrat-led government has reduced the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and removed 95% of rejected asylum seekers.
Ms Mahmood has made little secret of her admiration for the approach.
Denmark has sought to deter new arrivals by largely moving from a permanent to a temporary stay model where most asylum seekers are sent back to their home country once they are deemed safe.
The Home Secretary believes that unless Britain follows a similar approach, the far right will gain momentum, bringing “havoc and chaos” to Britain’s streets.
Touring the Danish asylum system earlier this week, Ms Mahmood was taken to a reception centre on the outskirts of Copenhagen where asylum seekers are taken by police to stay on a short-term basis.
The migrants’ biometrics are taken and they are given health checks.
The Home Secretary was then taken to a returns centre where migrants go before being sent back to their country of origin.
The centres, operated by the Danish Red Cross, included communal canteens and outdoor exercise machines.
She was shown accommodation which included plain rooms furnished with small single beds or bunkbeds and lockers.
Denmark’s tough stance on asylum seekers began in the mid 2010s when the hard-right Danish People’s Party began to rise in the polls.
Facing a collapse of working-class support for her party, Mette Frederiksen – now the prime minister but then in opposition – moved to make protection for asylum seekers temporary.
Her Social Democrats also argued that uncontrolled immigration was placing huge pressure on working-class communities.
Ms Mahmood is likely to face opposition in her efforts to emulate the Danish model from at least a few dozen Labour MPs.
