Locked in a battle to fend off Nigel Farage and show voters it takes border security seriously, Labour is looking overseas.
Ministers are seriously considering importing Denmark’s ‘zero refugees’ model, after hotel protests dominated the migrant debate over the summer.
The government has been watching the Scandinavian nation, where around 95 per cent of asylum seekers are turned away, with keen interest.
To be able to settle in Denmark, all migrants must be in full-time employment.
Those few that are accepted are granted a revocable temporary visa, on the proviso they can be returned to their home nation if it is later deemed safe enough.
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Sir Keir Starmer has frequently stood alongside his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen, with both leaders having agreed on strong support for Ukraine as part of the Coalition of the Willing.
However, it’s Ms Frederiksen’s success at bringing successful asylum claims to a 40-year low and holding off the tide of right-wing populist sentiment which will be of most interest to Starmer.
Labour is now trailing Farage’s party by an average of 10 percentage points in the latest polls.
The Home Office is studying Denmark’s other tough migration policies, which include restrictions on family reunification.
To join a spouse in Denmark, both the sponsor partner and the applicant must be at least 24 years of age, a measure introduced to curb forced marriages, according to Sky News.
Both must pass a language test, have not claimed benefits for three years and the partner wishing to migrate must have a financial guarantee from their sponsor.
Like the UK, Denmark considered an agreement with Rwanda to process asylum applicants abroad, but plans for this have been on hold since 2021.
Three years before that, the country passed controversial legislation to demographically alter what it termed ‘ghettos’ or areas with a non-western migrant population (including their descendants) of more than 50 per cent.
Sources say that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is eager to meet her Danish counterpart Rasmus Stokland as soon as possible to learn about how similar measures could be introduced in the UK to deter people from entering via unauthorised routes.
But Ms Mahmood may face opposition on her own benches to taking the Danish route, particularly from moderates who have criticised the regime ‘hardcore’, ‘dangerous’ and bordering on ‘racist’.
There also remain several obstacles to successfully adapting the model to Britain, where a sizeable number of migrants want to reunite with family or speak English.
It comes as 502 migrants crossed the Channel in seven small boats on Saturday, bringing the overall total to 1,772 in the last three days and 38,726 so far this year.
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