London — The British government on Friday pushed back against U.S. Vice President JD Vance after he blamed the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak on the “mass invasion of migrants” and said the “only response is righteous anger.”
A Downing Street spokesman said the Nowak family “have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division.”
“Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country,” the statement added.
In a post on X, Vance described the killing, which occurred in December, as “tragic as it is enraging,” and said 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.”
The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Vickrum Digwa, who was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years for murdering Nowak, was British-born. Digwa used a 21-centimeter (8-inch) blade he said he carried as part of his Sikh faith to stab Nowak, who was walking home alone after a night out with friends on Dec. 3.
Vance’s post echoed a statement Thursday from the U.S. State Department that said: “Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West.”
The remarks by Vance and the State Department represent the latest intervention by U.S. officials in a UK debate that has intensified significantly over the past week, fueled by the release of police bodycam footage showing officers handcuffing Nowak as he lay dying after Digwa falsely claimed to be the victim of a racist attack. The footage sparked violent protests in Southampton on Tuesday, during which police were pelted with missiles. Eleven officers and one police dog were injured, and two people were arrested.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of “trying to whip up division” over the case. Musk posted on X on Tuesday urging followers to share the bodycam footage, describing the police response as “heinous.”
Minister for Children Josh MacAlister also criticized Vance on Friday, telling BBC Radio 4: “I don’t think we need advice from American politicians … [on] how to have effective policing here in the UK.”
The case has sparked debate on multiple fronts — knife laws, race, policing practices, and public trust — and has become a flashpoint in UK politics. At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Starmer accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of exploiting the death to create “grievance and division.” Farage had suggested the public react with “pure, cold rage” to the police response and argued the incident was evidence of “two-tier policing” — a claim that minority communities receive preferential treatment because officers fear accusations of racism.
West Midlands Police Acting Chief Constable Scott Green has rejected the existence of two-tier policing. “What I see every day from the officers and staff and volunteers on the front line is people out there doing the very best they can every day, for the communities they serve,” he said Wednesday.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has also been critical, saying: “Police don’t set out to carry out two-tier policing, but that is what many people are experiencing and we need to take people’s experiences seriously.”
A document published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) — an anti-racism commitment that states its goal of “producing equality of policing outcomes… does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘colour blind’” — has come under scrutiny in the debate. NPCC Chair Chief Constable Gavin Stephens said in response that “where needed we can and will make changes, but this should not detract from the intent, which is to improve the quality of policing.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called for resisting “attempts like this to politicise Henry Nowak’s death and divide our country — whether they come from MAGA politicians like Vance or their cronies here in the UK.”