On the left of the party, former frontbencher Clive Lewis argued strongly against adopting the Danish system in an effort to outflank Reform UK.
“Denmark’s Social Democrats have gone down, what I would call a hardcore approach to immigration,” he said.
“They’ve adopted many of the talking points of what we would call the far right.
“Labour does need to win back some Reform-leaning voters but you can’t do that at the cost of losing progressive votes.”
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East and a member of Labour’s Socialist Campaign Group, said it would be a “dangerous path” to take and that some of the Danish policies, especially those around “parallel societies”, are “undeniably racist”.
“I think this is a dead end – morally, politically and electorally,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Gareth Snell, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, said however he thought similar policies to Denmark are “worth exploring” and that his constituents do not trust the current system in the UK and think of it as “inherently unfair”.
He said that when asylum is provided to people who can later safely return to their home countries to help rebuild their communities, “then we should support that”.
Jo White, who leads a 50-strong group of Labour MPs in “Red Wall” seats in the Midlands and North of England, would also like to see ministers go further in a Danish direction.
She argued that Labour would pay a heavy political price if it does not adopt policies such as requiring some asylum seekers to contribute to the cost of their stay.
“The consequences are that we go into a general election where Reform will be the biggest challenger in most Labour seats… and we will be annihilated.”
