Politicians and community leaders have called for calm amid fears that the populist right is using the murder of Henry Nowak by a Sikh man to whip up racist resentment against minority ethnic Britons.<\/p>\n
After Nigel Farage called for the public to respond with \u201cpure, cold rage\u201d, Keir Starmer condemned the Reform UK leader, saying Nowak\u2019s family had explicitly asked that the case not be used to target particular communities.<\/p>\n
Starmer said in a TV interview at Downing Street: \u201cNigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division. He would be wrong in any circumstances, but when Henry\u2019s family are saying, \u2018Please don\u2019t do that, it\u2019s our son\u2019, then really, as politicians, as human beings, we should start where they start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vickrum Digwa was jailed by a UK court on 1 June for life for killing 18-year-old student Henry Nowak. Photograph: Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Nowak, an 18-year-old university student, was fatally stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, who used a Sikh dagger, in Southampton<\/a> in December 2025.<\/p>\n Digwa falsely claimed he had been racially abused and attacked by Nowak. Body-camera footage released by Hampshire police showed Nowak being handcuffed despite repeatedly telling police officers he had been stabbed. At one point an officer tells him: \u201cI don\u2019t think you have, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n The treatment of Nowak by police has been highlighted repeatedly by US hard-right commentators, including Elon Musk, who have argued it shows \u201ctwo-tier\u201d policing in which accusations of racism are prioritised.<\/p>\n In what he described as an \u201cemergency address\u201d sent via social media on Tuesday morning, Farage repeated this argument, warning that what he termed as an excessive focus on racial equality could lead to \u201cthe destruction of society\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cEnough of anti-white prejudice. A promotion of the idea that white lives matter just as much as black lives.\u201d The phrase \u201cwhite lives matter\u201d originally emerged among US white nationalists as a riposte to the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n On Tuesday evening, a crowd of hundreds of people gathered outside Southampton police station after the far-right activist Tommy Robinson called on people to gather for a \u201cJustice for Henry Nowak\u201d protest.<\/p>\n Some chanted: \u201cRacist police, off our streets\u201d and \u201cShame on you\u201d. They held up union flags and homemade signs including: \u201cHenry\u2019s blood is on your hands\u201d, \u201cSave our kids\u201d and \u201cPrison 4 police on scene\u201d.<\/p>\n Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, attends a demonstration after the conviction of Digwa. Photograph: Isabel Infantes\/Reuters<\/p>\n Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, accused Hampshire police of institutional racism and called for Digwa\u2019s family to be forced out of Southampton. He said: \u201cIf Henry wasn\u2019t white, he wouldn\u2019t have been handcuffed. Henry could be your son.\u201d Responding to the resignation of one of the police officers involved in the arrest, he said: \u201cWe want him in prison\u201d.<\/p>\n Nick Tenconi, the leader of the UK Independence Party, led a prayer at the demonstration for Nowak as members of the crowd chanted: \u201cHenry, Henry\u201d. Tenconi said: \u201cThe arresting officers believed persecuting him [Nowak] was more important than saving him because he was white.\u201d He added: \u201cI am here to fight for an end to woke policing.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer said he found the body cam footage of Nowak\u2019s last moments \u201charrowing\u201d<\/a>, saying: \u201cThere are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least, how accusations of racism inform the decision making in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n