Labour's Danish Turn: Can Shabana Mahmood's Reforms Win Back Voters' Trust on Immigration

The Labour Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has unveiled a sweeping package of immigration reforms to restore “fairness and control”, describing the current system as “broken”. By drawing inspiration from the Danish Model, Labour are seeking to reclaim credibility on migration, neutralise the appeal of Reform and rebuild trust with working-class voters.

What are the new changes?

The Home Secretary unveiled what she calls “the most significant and comprehensive changes to our asylum system in a generation”. Through these reforms, she aims to “restore order and control” to Britain’s borders after a period in which the asylum system has been “putting pressure on communities” [1]. Mahmood argues that “illegal migration is tearing the country apart…it is dividing communities”, and that bold action is required to retain public trust in the idea of offering refuge [2]. Thus, these bold reforms are necessary if we are to prevent an even more radical form of populist politics, under Reform, from dismantling the human rights protections of the ECHR.

Key measures include:

• ● Temporary refugee status:Refugee protection will no longer be an automatic pathway to permanent settlement. Instead, Britain will emulate the Danish model by making asylum status temporary and subject to renewal only if the refugee cannot safely return home.
• ● Permanent residency would be deferred to 20 years of continual stay: This is a fourfold increase from the previous five-year timeline. In Mahmood’s words, this “changes that generations-old assumption that sanctuary… can very quickly lead to permanent settlement” [1].
• ● Encouraging work and contribution: On one hand, a work and study visa route for refugees will be created, offering a faster track to settlement for those who contribute to our society. On the other hand, refugees who can work but choose not to will have their benefits removed.
• ● Limiting family reunification:Outside of exceptional cases, those granted asylum will no longer have an automatic right to bring over extended family. Family reunion will be possible only if a refugee has entered the work/study route and meets strict tests. There will also be a narrowing of the definition of ‘family’ to immediate relatives. This change is intended to prevent abuse of the system via “dubious connections to stay in the UK” [3].
• ● Ending automatic support and accommodation: The legal duty to provide housing and financial support to asylum seekers (from a 2005 law) will be scrapped and replaced with a discretionary power.
• ● Close hotel accommodation for asylum seekers: The government has also vowed to close expensive hotel accommodations by year’s end, with Mahmood promising “I will close every single asylum hotel” [4].
• ● Stepped-up removals and enforcement: Mahmood announced Britain will restart deportations to countries once deemed too dangerous, such as Syria (which are now no longer under the former regime). Even families who have been refused asylum will no longer be exempt from removal. Mahmood highlighted that around “700 Albanian families” whose claims failed despite Albania being a safe country can now expect to be sent home [2]. Additionally, to put pressure on governments to accept returnees, the Home Secretary threatened visa sanctions on nations like Angola, Namibia and the DRC if they refuse to take back their citizens who violated UK immigration rules [2].
• ● Creating new safe and legal pathways: Balancing the crackdown, Mahmood emphasised that once illegal flows are under control, she will open new, capped safe pathways. These include special visas for displaced students and skilled workers from conflict zones (such as in Ukraine or Palestine).

Source:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-and-returns-policy-statement/restoring-order-and-control-a-statement-on-the-governments-asylum-and-returns-policy?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Her rhetoric has sparked internal dissent on the Labour left and among the broader left-wing opposition in the country, with accusations that she is appeasing the far right. However, Mahmood pushed back against these accusations by drawing on her own lived experience. She says, “I am the one who is regularly called a f***ing P*** and told to go back home”, and “I know through my personal experience and through the experience of my constituents, just how divisive the issue of asylum has become in our country” [2]. Here, Mahmood is saying that she isn’t siding with the far right on asylum; rather, as someone who’s been racially abused herself, she knows how painful this issue is and is trying to confront its divisiveness honestly rather than ignore it.

Therefore, she is opposing those who ignore the issue of immigration, arguing that “I wish it were possible to say there is not a problem here… but the system is broken” [1]. By acknowledging the scale of public frustration, Mahmood hopes Labour can defuse the anger on immigration and prove that secure borders and compassion can coexist. This tough-love message, that secure borders are essential to social cohesion, has won praise from some unlikely quarters and may allow Labour to win back support from working-class voters who have flocked to Reform.

Why should we take lessons from the Danish model?

Last month, the Home Office dispatched UK officials to Copenhagen to study Denmark’s border and asylum policies. Mahmood even explicitly cited the Danish model, pointing out that asylum claims in Denmark have fallen to a 40-year low after these policies were adopted. “In other European countries, things are done differently. In Denmark, refugee status is temporary… In recent years, asylum claims in Denmark hit a 40-year low,” she told Parliament while unveiling the changes [2].

But what is the appeal? Well, this approach is eye-catching to Labour, as Denmark has managed to combine centre-left governance with some of Europe’s strictest immigration rules, showing that fairness can be balanced with control.

Furthermore, Denmark has blunted the rise of their far right. While many Western European nations have seen surges in anti-immigration populist parties, Denmark stands out as an exception. By adopting policies once associated with right-wing nationalists, Frederiksen’s Social Democrats effectively undercut their rivals’ main appeal. We see this in the results of the 2024 European Parliament Elections, where the largest right-wing populist party in Denmark received only 6%, far lower compared to the rest of Europe. Even the leader of Denmark’s hard-right Danish People’s Party (DPP) acknowledges that his party’s poor polling is partly because the Social Democrats stole their thunder; a development he begrudgingly credits as “not a bad thing…the best argument wins” [5].

Source: Results of the largest right-wing populist parties in each country during the European Parliament elections in 2024. The UK result is from the 2024 General Election.

Can this win back support from Reform?

Ultimately, Labour’s Danish turn comes as a result of the rise of Reform UK, which has capitalised on public frustration over immigration. “Immigration and Asylum” is now the top concern for not only Reform’s base, but the majority of the country, and according to YouGov, 70% of voters say that Immigration is “Too High”.

Source:https://news.sky.com/story/immigration-becomes-voters-top-issue-for-first-time-since-brexit-13427783

Therefore, this move hopes to neutralise immigration as an anxiety and allow Labour to win back portions of the electorate drifting toward Reform. In effect, Shabana Mahmood is attempting the same manoeuvre the Danes pulled off. If successful, this could not only shore up Labour’s abysmal poll numbers but also deprive Farage’s party of its signature issue, and recent polling already hints at this dynamic, with support for reducing immigration and deporting illegal migrants cutting across traditional party lines:

Source:https://jlpartners.co.uk/polling-results

Other Sources:

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/16/uk-asylum-reform-secure-borders-shabana-mahmood

[2]https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-11-17/debates/A9C59B8C-EB0D-4BA7-B8D3-F0B0A53A2DB0/AsylumPolicy

[3]https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-reviews-human-rights-laws-major-shake-up-asylum-policy-2025-11-16/

[4]https://x.com/ShabanaMahmood/status/1990831975490314649

[5]https://www.newsweek.com/2025/06/27/denmark-strict-immigration-laws-2082796.html