Prime Minister Keir Starmer hopes Britain’s restrictive new policy on asylum seekers will give him a grip on a feverish immigration debate that is threatening his government. But the harsh new rules are already eliciting charges of “performative cruelty,” not least from lawmakers in his own Labour Party. Britain is emulating Denmark, which has set out to make the lives of refugees as uncomfortable as possible to deter others from following them. Immigration experts have labeled this approach, parts of which have been tried by other Scandinavian countries, “negative nation branding.”Whether going negative, however, will cause the number of arrivals to Britain to fall as it did in Denmark is an open question. Moreover, experts say, the policy could have a corrosive long-term effect on legal immigrants, who often feel targeted by the government’s hostile messaging.

Source: The Times November 18, 2025 15:28 UTC