“If people can safely return home, we should support that,” says Gareth Snell, Labour MP for Stoke‑on‑Trent Central - an argument echoing across the Potteries and the wider North as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood prepares Danish‑style changes to the UK’s asylum system later this month, according to BBC reporting. The aim, officials say, is to reduce pull factors and speed removals for those with no right to remain.

Mahmood, appointed Home Secretary on 5 September 2025, told Labour’s conference in September she would “do whatever it takes” to restore order at the border. BBC reporting says she has already sent senior Home Office staff to Copenhagen to study Denmark’s system first‑hand - a signal that November’s package will borrow heavily from what ministers there have done.

Denmark’s approach puts temporary protection ahead of settlement. Most people fleeing conflicts receive a time‑limited stay, with return possible once authorities deem their home country safe. Settlement takes longer and conditions are tougher, including sustained employment. Supporters point to Denmark’s 40‑year low in successful asylum claims - pandemic year aside - as proof the policy has bite, as reported by the BBC.

Family reunion is where the sharpest change may land. Denmark sets a minimum age of 24 for both partners, requires the sponsor not to have received certain social benefits for four years, and demands a financial guarantee - recently reduced to about DKK 57,000 - alongside Danish language requirements or proof of years of Danish‑language work. UK officials have been poring over these criteria, BBC reporting says.

The most contentious feature is Denmark’s “parallel societies” law. Residents of designated estates - areas with high proportions of what the government labels “non‑Western” residents - face strict limits, including exclusion from family reunion. Earlier this year an adviser to the EU’s top court called the policy “direct discrimination” based on ethnic origin - a finding the Danish government disputes.

In the UK, the Home Office suspended new applications under the Refugee Family Reunion scheme in September while new rules are drafted. BBC reporting indicates Mahmood will not copy Denmark wholesale but will move in a more restrictive direction when she unveils the replacement later this month.

Not every Labour MP is buying the Danish route. Nottingham East’s Nadia Whittome calls it a “dangerous path” and - on the “parallel societies” policy - “undeniably racist”. Former frontbencher Clive Lewis has warned against adopting what he calls a “hardcore” approach in an effort to outflank Reform UK. Those views set up a clear internal clash.

Others from the Red Wall want ministers to go further. Bassetlaw’s Jo White, who chairs a caucus of roughly 40 Midlands‑North Labour MPs, argues the party must prove it will grip the system. “We will be annihilated,” she told the BBC, if Reform becomes the main challenger in these seats. Stoke‑on‑Trent’s Snell says Danish‑style principles are “worth exploring”.

For town halls across the North, the rub is funding. Councils now receive £1,200 per accommodated asylum seeker in 2025‑26 plus £100 per new bedspace, but leaders tell MPs it still doesn’t meet real costs. Hotels have been far pricier than other options - around six times more per person per night on 2024/25 averages - and a Commons committee has criticised the Home Office’s asylum accommodation contracts and oversight.

Context matters. Denmark isn’t contending with small‑boat arrivals on anything like UK levels, and Danish‑language requirements deter some applicants. By contrast, the Home Office recorded 43,309 people arriving by small boat in the year to June 2025 - a stubborn pressure on northern councils, police and services. Any cut‑and‑paste will collide with that basic difference.

Mahmood is unlikely to mirror every Danish measure. BBC reporting suggests there will be no Danish‑style cash offers - up to roughly £24,000 - to encourage voluntary returns. And while Copenhagen is reviewing how the European Convention on Human Rights is applied, ministers there say they don’t want to quit the ECHR - a debate Westminster is also wrestling with.

Whitehall expects details within weeks. The Home Office is working to a November timetable, and the politics will run from Westminster to Workington. For those who want to interrogate Denmark’s record, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts Immigration: the Danish Way at 13:30 GMT on Sunday 9 November, with the programme available on BBC Sounds.