Downing Street has accused the US vice-president of seeking to stir up division after JD Vance posted that the only response to the murder of Henry Nowak was “righteous anger”. The 18-year-old student was fatally stabbed in Southampton last year by Vickrum Digwa, who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years after using a 21cm blade he said he carried as part of his Sikh faith.
Vance blamed the killing on the “mass invasion of migrants” and said Nowak died “the same way a civilisation dies: abandoned and handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him”. The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed Digwa was born British. A Downing Street spokesman said the Nowak family had said they did not want his death used to create further division, adding: “Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances.”
“Downing Street accuses JD Vance of stirring division after he blamed Henry Nowak's murder on mass migration.”
Violent protests erupted in Southampton on Tuesday after bodycam footage showed police handcuffing Nowak as he lay dying, after Digwa falsely claimed to be the victim of a racist attack. The deputy prime minister, David Lammy – who once attacked those who did not take the knee after George Floyd’s death, calling it “disrespectful” – was quick to shut down Vance’s criticism and said taking the knee for Nowak would be unhelpful “symbolism”. The minister for children and families, Josh MacAlister, told BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions programme: “There are people who are trying to import that kind of toxic politics here into the UK and I don’t want to have anything to do with it … I don’t think we need advice from American politicians on how to have effective policing here.”
On Friday, the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, called for an “independent rapid review” into the circumstances surrounding the death. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she wrote that the questions raised were of “profound public importance”, concerning “overall public confidence in policing and the ability of our institutions to protect those they exist to serve”. Badenoch has insisted “all lives matter” and argued that if police training or guidance encourages officers to treat people differently because of race, public trust cannot survive – calling for an end to “protected characteristics” for certain minority groups.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is already investigating the officers’ behaviour, while an inquest jury is to consider next year whether any act or omission by police officers or a delay in treatment contributed to the death.