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Labour MPs reacted with fury to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms in leaked WhatsApp messages. Ms Mahmood announced new legislation to overhaul Britain’s under-pressure asylum system in a major speech today.

But she is facing an angry revolt by Labour MPs over the plans, which include 30-month reviews for refugee status. In leaked messages from a Labour WhatsApp group, backbenchers criticised the changes and refused to promote them.

Labour MP Sarah Owen insisted the policy is not “fair, credible or sustainable”, and added: “No thanks. Will not be sharing this.”

Labour MP Abtisam Mohamed said it was “not Labour values at all” and “anything but compassionate and can we stop selling it as such”.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Stella Creasy said: “There’s no ‘fairness’ in repeatedly spending money on asking victims of trafficking and civil war if they are still in that category especially when we have already given them refugee status so confirmed that are at risk of harm – only a massive waste of money.”

Backbenchers Kate Obsorne and Vicky Foxcroft both insisted they would not share the plans.

The row comes as Ms Mahmood unveiled a series of migration reforms today.

They include people granted asylum in the UK having their refugee status made temporary and subject to review every 30 months.

She also announced that a small number of failed asylum seekers will be offered an “increased incentive payment” of £10,000 per person and up to £40,000 per family to leave Britain under a pilot scheme.

Ms Mahmood said: “There is no denying that we meet at a difficult time for my party. It is a time when who we are and what we stand for is contested, sometimes bitterly, and nowhere is that contest more keenly felt than in the politics of migration.

“I have, of late, been offered wise counsel on this topic from certain quarters. I have been told that we must, quite simply, be more Labour. Well, you know what? I happen to agree we should be more Labour.

“Of course, we should be more Labour. The real question is, what does more Labour mean, because, in my view, more Labour doesn’t mean more Green, just like more Labour doesn’t mean more Reform.”

The Home Secretary’s policy shift comes after she visited Denmark, where a social democratic-led government has drastically reduced the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and removed 95% of rejected asylum seekers.

Ms Mahmood told the event the Government would seek to echo reforms introduced in Denmark, and said her reforms offer “a compassionate but controlled asylum system. Firm, but fair”.

But the Tories branded the changes as “an insult to the British taxpayer”.

Ms Mahmood, in an explosive speech, revealed children will be forcibly deported if their families refuse to take the cash.

But the huge “incentive” sparked fury, with critics warning it could convince more people to try and cross the Channel.

Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf declared: “They are not fleeing conflict, they are coming from France.

“They come because Tory and now Labour governments lay on a food bank for the world at British taxpayer expense.

“Free accommodation, free meals, free healthcare. The only way to stop this is to detain all of them and deport them.

“Unbelievably, Labour is increasing the incentive, by offering a staggering £40,000 package to illegals to leave voluntarily.

“That’s more than the median salary in Britain. As a prize for breaking in illegally. It’s a disgrace.”

Each person in 150 families will be offered £10,000 if they agree to leave within seven days – but the handouts are being capped at £40,000. They received the messages early on Thursday morning.

As part of the plan, the Home Office is consulting with experts on how to “physically handle children during the removal, where it is appropriate”.

A source said: “The average cost to a taxpayer, of each family, is £158,000 a year.

“They will have seven days to reply to that offer and then leave the country.

“Crucially, if they do not take this offer, we will look to forcibly remove them from the country. That includes children, but we will never separate parents from their children.

“This has been an incredibly successful model in Denmark, in terms of using incentives smartly to increase the removals of failed asylum seekers.

“We estimate, should the pilot be successful, we will save £20million for the taxpayer.”

They added that migrants from Vietnam pay between £15,000 and £35,000 to reach the UK, whilst Syrians pay £10,000.

This, a source close to the Home Secretary argued, shows that migrants won’t be able to make money from the scheme.

The Home Secretary confirmed plans to boot migrants out of asylum accommodation and strip them of their cash if they break the law.

From June, the help will become “conditional” and only given to those “who genuinely need it and follow the law”.

Those who work in Britain’s black economy will also be thrown out of hotels, houses, flats and bedsits funded by taxpayers, alongside foreign criminals and those refusing to leave the UK voluntarily.

Some 30,000 migrants could lose their support, officials predicted.

She told the IPPR: “Once we have determined that somebody does not have a right to be in this country legally, it is essential that they leave.

“There is nothing fair about not enforcing our rules.

“Particularly as we know, many melt into illegal work, undercutting legal workers.”

Under Labour’s plans, migrants’ rights to permanent asylum will be scrapped.

Instead, they will be offered temporary status, which will be reviewed every 30 months.

If their country is deemed safe enough for them to return, they will be sent back. Only children who arrive in the UK unaccompanied will be exempt.

Until now, successful asylum seekers have been granted refugee status for five years and allowed to bring their families to the UK. They then got almost automatic fee-free permanent settlement with continued access to benefits and housing.

Refugees will also be required to “earn” their settlement rights by working and contributing to society.

They will have to wait up to 20 years before they can apply to settle in the UK – and up to 30 years if they arrived illegally via small boats across the Channel or by claiming asylum after overstaying work, student or visitor visas.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Shabana Mahmood has to resort to paying illegal immigrants to leave because she has utterly failed to forcibly remove them – only six per cent of small boat arrivals have been removed under this Labour Government.

“Offering £40,000 to failed asylum seekers to leave the country will only reward and incentivise illegal immigration. If we exit the ECHR we can deport all illegal immigrants without needing to pay them. But Shabana Mahmood is too weak to do this.”

Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf added: “Shabana Mahmood has kicked hardworking British taxpayers in the teeth. Nearly 200,000 illegal migrants have arrived from France over the past eight years because the Tories and Labour treat Britain like a global food bank, paid for by British taxpayers.

“Now Labour is making it worse, offering a staggering £40,000 for illegals to leave voluntarily. It’s a disgrace. Only Reform will detain and deport every illegal migrant and end welfare handouts for foreign nationals.”