diff --git a/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.groovy b/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.groovy
--- a/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.groovy
+++ b/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.groovy
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 def full_environ
 
 def debian_upstream_tag_exists = false
+def download_artifact_from_pypi = params.DOWNLOAD_ARTIFACT_FROM_PYPI
 
 pipeline {{
   agent {{ label 'debian' }}
@@ -96,7 +97,7 @@
     stage('gbp import-orig') {{
       when {{
         beforeAgent true
-        expression {{ !debian_upstream_tag_exists }}
+        expression {{ !debian_upstream_tag_exists && download_artifact_from_pypi }}
       }}
       steps {{
         copyArtifacts(
diff --git a/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.yaml b/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.yaml
--- a/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.yaml
+++ b/jobs/templates/debian/update-for-release.yaml
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
           name: DRY_RUN
           description: Don't push the resulting changes to a Debian branch
           default: false
+      - bool:
+          name: DOWNLOAD_ARTIFACT_FROM_PYPI
+          description: download the module artifact source from pypi
+          default: true
     dsl:
       !include-raw: update-for-release.groovy