Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has told US Vice-President JD Vance that he was “wrong” to blame the murder of teenager Henry Nowak on the “mass invasion of migrants” – a comment that came as violent protests erupted in Southampton over the killing.
Bodycam footage showed police handcuffing the 18-year-old British student as he lay dying on the pavement after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in Southampton last December. Digwa, who was born in the UK, falsely claimed he had been racially abused and was acting in self-defence. He was jailed for life for murder, carrying a blade he said was for religious reasons linked to his Sikh faith.
“Lammy tells Vance his comments blaming Nowak murder on mass migration are wrong after violent protests.”
Vance wrote on X on Friday that Nowak died “the same way a civilisation dies: abandoned and handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him”. The killing was “as tragic as it is enraging”, he added, and Nowak would still be alive “if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants”.
Lammy told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he called Vance on Saturday and said: “I told him he was wrong.” The killing “has got nothing to do with mass migration”, Lammy said. He described the conversation as “agreeable” and “robust”, adding that he did not agree with Vance’s “caricature” of Western civilisation. “We remain colleagues and friends,” Lammy said.
Nowak’s father, Mark, had appealed for calm after the sentencing, saying: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
The case has also drawn criticism from the House of Lords, where a peer writing in the New Statesman recalled listening to debates that sought to use the tragedy as evidence for broader political arguments, particularly claims that equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives had “weakened” policing. Doreen Lawrence reminded the House that a family’s grief should not be turned into a political weapon.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the actions of officers who handcuffed Nowak as he was dying. The New Statesman piece argued: “Accountability is not the same as speculation. Too often today, public debate rewards those who reach conclusions first rather than those who seek evidence.”