Starmer suggests US ‘trying to interfere in our democracy’ over Nowak claims
No 10 responds after US vice-president blames UK teenager’s death on mass migration
Keir Starmer has suggested the US is trying to interfere in British democracy after JD Vance, the US vice-president, blamed the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration.
No 10 responded after the senior Republican politician claimed in a post on X that Nowak would 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, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it”.
Downing Street did not name Vance directly but said its response to his comments was that “in recent days we have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets”.
“The Nowak family are grieving after Henry’s horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes,” a spokesperson said.
“Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country.”
There has been a national outcry about Nowak’s murder as footage showed police officers handcuffed him as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer, Vickrum Digwa, had falsely accused him of racist abuse. Digwa, a British-born Sikh, was ultimately convicted of murder and jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years.
Nowak’s family, who met Starmer on Thursday, asked that his death not be used to create further division, hatred or tension. But since the conviction, rightwing US figures have made several remarks about the case. The US state department, run by Marco Rubio, portrayed the case as an example of the UK’s “civilisational decline”.
In a post on X, the department said: “Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West. The United States sends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.”
Subsequently, Starmer said the police’s response was under review but rejected the US state department’s characterisation of UK policing. He told LBC: “It is really important that we are very, very clear, policing without fear or favour, whatever anybody else says, and wherever they’re saying it from, whichever country in the world.” He also said the UK must not shy away from asking difficult questions of the police.
The Liberal Democrats have called for the US ambassador to the UK to be summoned over what they called “flagrant foreign interference that seeks to fan the flames of division”. The party’s leader, Ed Davey, said the Trump administration was “attacking our democracy, not in secret, but openly on social media”.
“Starmer needs to show some backbone and call this out today. We can’t turn a blind eye to this blatant interference any longer,” Davey said.
No 10, however, said the relationship with the US remained “incredibly strong” despite the difference of view on policing. It declined to be drawn on whether the US would be rebuked in any diplomatic conversations.
Nowak’s murder has been claimed by some as evidence of two-tier policing in the UK – the argument that some groups of people are dealt with more harshly than others for ideological reasons.
The owner of X, Elon Musk, and the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, are among those to have claimed the circumstances of Nowak’s death in Southampton were evidence of bias against white people. Both have in turn been accused of exploiting the teenager’s death.
David Lammy, the UK’s deputy prime minister, told Sky News on Friday that he welcomed the US government’s condolences to the Nowak family but said he did not recognise “this caricature of Britain having a two-tier criminal justice system”.
Starmer on Thursday accused Musk of “interfering in our politics” and attempting to create division.
Musk is a regular poster of ethnonationalist content and a supporter of Restore Britain, the far-right party set up by Rupert Lowe, a former Reform MP. He has posted for weeks on his social media platform about Nowak’s murder, often using far-right themes and talking points.
The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, is examining the behaviour of the officers who handcuffed Nowak after he had been fatally stabbed.
Starmer met Nowak’s family at Downing Street on Thursday to discuss a response to the actions of Hampshire police, saying afterwards he had promised to take “whatever action is required to right the wrongs in this case”.