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UK looking at Denmark model to cut illegal migration

November 08, 2025 at 15:52

The Home Office is looking at what Denmark is doing to cut illegal migration, Sky News understands.

Last month, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood dispatched officials to the Nordic nation to study its border control and asylum policies, which are considered some of the toughest in Europe.

In particular, officials are understood to be looking at Denmark's tighter rules on family reunion and restricting most refugees to a temporary stay in the country.

Ms Mahmood will announce a major shake-up of the UK's immigration system later this month, PA is reporting.

Labour MPs are said to be split on the move.

Some, in so-called Red Wall seats which are seen as vulnerable to challenge from Reform UK, want ministers to go further in the direction Denmark has taken.

But others believe the policies will estrange progressive voters and push the Labour Party too far to the right.

It comes as the government continues to struggle to get immigration under control, with rising numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel over the last few months and a migrant, deported under the UK's returns deal with France, re-entering the country.

Some 648 people crossed the Channel to Britain in nine boats on Friday, according to Home Office figures, bringing the total for the year to 38,223.

Ms Mahmood wants deterrents in place to stop migrants seeking to enter the country via unauthorised routes.

She also wants to make it easier to remove those who are found to have no right to stay in the UK.

Sources told the PA news agency she was eager to meet her Danish counterpart, Rasmus Stoklund, the country's immigration minister, at the earliest possible convenience.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Mr Stoklund likened Danish society to "the hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings" and said people coming to the country who do not contribute positively would not be welcome.

Mr Stoklund said: "We are a small country. We live peacefully and quietly with each other. I guess you could compare us to the hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings."

"We expect people who come here to participate and contribute positively, and if they don't they aren't welcome."

The split in Labour was apparent from public comments by MPs today.

Stoke-on-Trent Central Labour MP Gareth Snell told Radio 4's Today programme that any change bringing "fairness" to an asylum system that his constituents "don't trust" was "worth exploring".

But Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome, who is a member of the party's Socialist Campaign Group caucus, said: "I think these are policies of the far right. I don't think anyone wants to see a Labour government flirting with them."

How a cup of coffee led Sky News to a sex offender on the run

November 08, 2025 at 05:40

It started with a strong espresso in a simple cafe on a side street in north London.

Several Algerian men were inside, a few others were outside on the pavement, smoking.

I'd been told the wanted prisoner might be in Finsbury Park, so I ordered a coffee and asked if they'd seen him.

They were happy to tell me that some of them knew Brahim Kaddour-Cherif - the 24-year-old offender who was on the run.

One of the customers revealed to me that he'd actually seen him the night before.

"He wants to hand himself to police," the friend said candidly.

This was the beginning of the end of a high-profile manhunt.

The Algerian convicted sex offender had been at large since 29 October, after he was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Within an hour of meeting the friend in the cafe, he had followed myself and camera operator Josh Masters to a nearby street.

We weren't yet filming - he didn't want any attention or fuss surrounding him.

"Follow me, he's in the park," the man told me.

"Follow - but not too close."

We did.

I was in the same park a few weeks ago after fugitive Hadush Kebatu, the Ethiopian sex offender - also wrongly released from prison - was arrested in Finsbury Park.

It was odd to be back in the same spot in such similar circumstances.

As he led us through the park past joggers, young families and people playing tennis, the man headed for the gates near Finsbury Park station.

All of a sudden, two police officers ran past us.

The Met had received a tip-off from a member of the public.

It was frantic. Undercover officers, uniformed cops, screeching tyres and blaring sirens. We were in the middle of the manhunt.

As they scoured the streets at speed, we walked by some of the Algerian men I'd seen in the cafe.

One man near the group was wearing green tracksuit bottoms, a beanie hat and had glasses on.

"It's him, it's him," one of the other men said to me, gesturing towards him.

The man in the beanie then quickly turned on his heel and walked off.

"It's him, it's him," another guy agreed.

The suspect was walking off while the police were still searching the nearby streets.

Josh and I caught up with him and I asked directly: "Are you Brahim?"

You may have watched the exchange in the Sky News video - he was in denial, evasive and pretended the suspect had pedalled off on a Lime bike.

I can only guess he knew the game was up, but for whatever reason, he was keeping up the lie.

Moments later, one of the bystanders told me "it is him" - with added urgency.

Only the prisoner knows why he then walked up to the nearby police van - officers quickly moved to handcuff him and tell him why he was being arrested.

Over the next 10 minutes, he became agitated. His story changed as I repeatedly asked if he had been the man inside HMP Wandsworth.

Officers needed confirmation too - one quickly pulled out a smartphone and checked an image of the wanted man from one of Sky News' online platforms.

"It's not my f****** fault, they release me!" he yelled at me.

The search was over, the prisoner cage in the back of the van was opened and he was guided in.

I then spoke to another Algerian man who had tipped off the police - he told me he hated sex offenders and the shame he felt over the whole episode.

The community had done the right thing - there were two tip-offs - one to me, one to the police.

The farce of this manhunt had gone on long enough.

Barber shop owner questions whether train stabbing attack could have been prevented if concerns 'were taken seriously'

November 08, 2025 at 13:14

The owner of a barber shop that was twice confronted by a man wielding a knife has questioned whether last Saturday's Huntingdon stabbing attack could have been prevented, had the police taken his concerns seriously.

It comes as members of staff at his barber shop came face-to-face with the man believed to be responsible for the train stabbing rampage, which saw 10 people taken to hospital for injuries.

"We didn't really comprehend until days later that we could have been victims," says Ibrahim Wanas, owner of Ritzy Barbers, Peterborough.

CCTV images capture a man standing outside the barber shop on Friday evening, before he makes his way inside, waving a knife around and terrifying members of staff and clients in the shop.

Members of the Ritzy team could be seen running towards the back of the shop, in an attempt to get away from the man with the knife.

"I am very proud of them because they did handle it in the best possible way," says Ibrahim.

"Because if they had acted in any other way, would it have turned out differently? Would he have lashed out at them for maybe speaking back to him?

"It was just a shock because everyone was caught off guard."

The British Transport Police says it is now trying to establish whether three separate incidents that took place in Peterborough before the attack on the 6.25pm Doncaster to London King's Cross LNER service on Saturday are linked.

Ibrahim says he was not in the shop during the incident on Friday evening, and received a phone call from a member of his team alerting him to what had happened.

"I actually thought the boys were trying to wind me up because of the sort of relationship we have in the shop… and it was Halloween," he says.

But he says he realised it was "serious" by the member of staff's tone of voice.

"So I rushed to the shop straight away," he says. Ibrahim says after checking on his staff and reviewing the CCTV, he called the police around 90 minutes later.

But as the suspect was no longer there, police did not attend, until the following day - when the alleged attacker returned.

By the time Cambridgeshire Police arrived 20 minutes later, he had left, and it wasn't until Sunday, two days after the initial call, that police attended in person to review the CCTV.

"That's when I think they kind of realised that it could be the same person. And we ourselves realised that, well, it could have been us in that situation," says Ibriham.

"I feel like we wasn't taken seriously."

"That does weigh quite heavy on us as a team here, because we feel like if they had taken us seriously, would they have stopped the guy? And would the guy have been in custody? Something that sits on us because the police didn't come fast enough to respond," he adds.

Following news of the incident in Huntingdon, Ibrahim closed the barber shop to give his staff time to process what had happened.

However, despite reopening, he says he fears some of his team will be "constantly watching over their shoulders" when he would rather it remained a "safe haven" for men in the community.

Ibrahim says he is determined not to let the incidents cause division. It's why he is establishing a project called the Ritzy Foundation, designed to help young people and build pathways into entrepreneurship, hoping the shop could also serve as a catalyst for change.

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: "This matter was already referred to the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) but did not meet the threshold for a referral. Our internal review continues into any potential incidents relating to events on Saturday.

"The investigation into these offences now sits with the British Transport Police."

NHS trust and ward manager to be sentenced - over a decade after young patient Alice Figueiredo's death

November 08, 2025 at 07:08

An NHS trust and a ward manager will be sentenced next week for health and safety failings - more than a decade after a young woman died in a secure mental health hospital.

Warning: This article contains references to suicide.

Earlier this year, a jury found the North East London NHS Foundation Trust and ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa did not do enough to prevent Alice Figueiredo from killing herself.

The decisions were reached after the joint-longest jury deliberation in English legal history.

Alice was 22 years old when she took her own life at London's Goodmayes Hospital in July 2015.

Her parents sat through seven months of difficult and graphic evidence - and told Sky News the experience retraumatised them.

Jane Figueiredo said: "It's very distressing, because you know that she's been failed at every point all the way along, and you're also reliving the suffering that she went through.

"It's adding trauma on top of the wound that you've already got, the worst wound you can imagine, of losing your child."

Alice's stepfather Max said he remains "appalled" that she died in a place they thought would care for her.

"The fact we have these repeated deaths of very young people in secure mental health units shocks me to the core. How can society look at that event and portray it as something that happens as a matter of course?"

Ms Figueiredo said Alice had predicted her own death.

"She said to us - out of fear really: 'The only way I'm going to leave this ward is in a body bag.'

"It's because she did not feel safe."

In a statement, the North East London NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are deeply sorry for Alice's death, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and loved ones.

"We have taken significant steps to continually improve the physical and social environment, deliberately designed to support recovery, safety, wellbeing, and assist our workforce in delivering compassionate care."

For Alice's family, the convictions have brought some justice, but they say they have never received a personal apology from the hospital and will never have complete closure.

"As a mum your bereavement doesn't ever end, it changes over years as you go on, but it's unending. The thought I won't even hear her voice is unbearable and I still miss it. I still miss her voice," Ms Figueiredo said.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

Woman critically injured in Birmingham after being stabbed in neck in 'unprovoked attack'

November 08, 2025 at 12:52

A woman is in a critical condition after she was stabbed in the neck in what police have described as an "unprovoked attack".

West Midlands Police were called to Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham, shortly before 9pm on Friday following reports of a stabbing.

The woman, in her 30s, suffered a "serious neck injury" and remains in hospital.

A man in his 20s was arrested near to the scene and is in custody.

'An unprovoked attack'

Detective Inspector, James Nix, said: "We believe this was an unprovoked attack and are working to understand why it happened.

"We will have officers in the area today to continue our investigation and provide reassurance.

"We are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this incident."

The force added in a statement: "A man is in custody after a stabbing in Birmingham last night. We were called to Smallbrook Queensway shortly before 9pm after reports of a stabbing.

"A woman in her 30s was taken to hospital with a serious neck injury where she remains in a critical condition.

"A man in his 20s was arrested close to the scene and is in custody at this time.

"Our officers are at the scene carrying out enquiries as we try to establish the exact circumstances of what happened."

Police have urged witnesses, or anyone with information, to contact West Midlands Police.

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