{"id":623121,"date":"2026-06-05T18:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/623121\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:31:17","slug":"jd-vance-blames-henry-nowaks-murder-on-mass-invasion-of-migrants-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/623121\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance blames Henry Nowak\u2019s murder on \u2018mass invasion of migrants\u2019 | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u200bJD Vance, the US vice-president, has blamed the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration, just hours after Keir Starmer<\/a> rejected the US government\u2019s claim that there was \u201ctwo-tier policing\u201d in the UK.<\/p>\n

The senior Republican politician weighed into the case of the murdered 18-year-old, claiming in a post on X that Nowak would be alive \u201cif 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

There has been a national outcry about Nowak\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Nowak\u2019s family, who met Starmer on Thursday, have asked that his death should not be used to create further division, hatred or tension.<\/p>\n

But since the conviction, rightwing US figures have made a number of remarks about the case, with the US state department, run by Marco Rubio, portraying the case as an example of the UK\u2019s \u201ccivilisational decline\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a post<\/a> on X, the department said: \u201cIdeological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilisational 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following those remarks, Starmer said the police\u2019s response was under review but rejected the US state department\u2019s characterisation of UK policing, telling LBC: \u201cIt is really important that we are very, very clear, policing without fear or favour, whatever anybody else says, and wherever they\u2019re saying it from, whichever country in the world.\u201d He also said the UK must not shy away from asking difficult questions of the police.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrats have called for the US ambassador to the UK to be summoned over what they called \u201cflagrant foreign interference that seeks to fan the flames of division\u201d. The party\u2019s leader, Ed Davey, said the Trump administration<\/a> was \u201cattacking our democracy, not in secret, but openly on social media\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarmer needs to show some backbone and call this out today. We can\u2019t turn a blind eye to this blatant interference any longer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

No 10, however, said the relationship with the US remained \u201cincredibly strong\u201d despite the difference of view on policing. It declined to be drawn on whether the US would be rebuked in any diplomatic conversations.<\/p>\n

Nowak\u2019s murder has been claimed by some as evidence of two-tier policing in the UK<\/a> \u2013 the argument that some groups of people are dealt with more harshly than others for ideological reasons.<\/p>\n

Henry Nowak was handcuffed by Hampshire police officers as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer, Vickrum Digwa, had falsely accused him of racist abuse. Photograph: Hampshire Police\/PA<\/p>\n

The owner of X, Elon Musk, and the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage<\/a>, are among those to have claimed the circumstances of Nowak\u2019s death in Southampton<\/a> were evidence of bias against white people. Both have in turn been accused of exploiting the teenager\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

David Lammy, the UK\u2019s deputy prime minister, told Sky News on Friday that he welcomed the US government\u2019s condolences to the Nowak family but said he did not recognise \u201cthis caricature of Britain having a two-tier criminal justice system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer on Thursday accused Musk of \u201cinterfering in our politics\u201d<\/a> and attempting to create division.<\/p>\n

Musk is a regular poster of ethnonationalist content and a supporter of Restore Britain, the hard-right party set up by Rupert Lowe, a former Reform MP. He has posted for weeks on his social media platform about Nowak\u2019s murder, often using far-right themes and talking points.<\/p>\n

The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police<\/a> Conduct, is examining the behaviour of the officers who handcuffed Nowak after he had been fatally stabbed.<\/p>\n

Starmer met Nowak\u2019s family at Downing Street on Thursday to discuss a response to the actions of Hampshire police, saying afterwards he had been \u201cprofoundly humbled\u201d and had promised to take \u201cwhatever action is required to right the wrongs in this case\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the prime minister stressed he would not give up his job if the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, re-enters parliament in a byelection this month and joins a challenge for the leadership. \u201cI\u2019ve said over and over again, I\u2019m not going to walk away,\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n

He also set out his thinking on his forthcoming defence investment plan, promising it would lead to more jobs in the UK. However, he did not rule out the prospect that there could be cuts to pay for an extra \u00a315bn in spending.<\/p>\n

Saying the UK must be ready for war, he told LBC: \u201cI\u2019ve always said we\u2019re going to have to spend more on defence, and so we will set out the funding in relation to defence investment plan. It is about a question of priorities, and this is the top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody watching or listening to this will know in their heart of hearts that that has to be the top priority, defending our country, particularly at the moment. It does come with huge opportunities, because I\u2019m absolutely determined that every penny that we spend extra on defence, and we will, has to be seen in jobs and opportunities across the country, in every community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u200bJD Vance, the US vice-president, has blamed the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-623121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}