U.S. Vice President JD Vance argued in comments reported Tuesday that “righteous anger” was “the only response” to the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Britain, and blamed European elites for a “mass invasion of migrants” and a “politics of self-hatred,” according to a Guardian column by Gaby Hinsliff. Vance said Henry would be alive today “if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground” against the policies he described.
The vice-president’s remarks echoed language used by British populist Nigel Farage, who had called for “pure, cold rage” in response to the killing. Vance went further, arguing that European failure on immigration was directly responsible for the teen’s death. The column noted that Henry’s family has Polish roots, and that the suspect, Vickrum Digwa, is British-born to a British-born father; his mother is understood to have been born in India, the same country as Vance’s own mother-in-law.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking during D-Day anniversary commemorations in France, separately said European beaches were being “stormed today by different, dangerous ideologies” arriving in small boats. Hegseth did not appear to acknowledge that the troops who stormed the beaches on D-Day were fighting Nazi Germany, the column pointed out. Illegal border crossings in Europe fell 40% in the first four months of 2026, according to data the column cited.
The interventions drew a rare public rebuke from the British government. Former Foreign Secretary David Lammy let it be known that he had called Vance — whom the column described as his “supposedly great friend” — and told him he was wrong. Downing Street expressed concern at both statements.
The column characterized Vance’s approach as “strategic and consistent” in contrast to Trump’s more impulsive and trade-focused broadsides. Vance has engaged with far-right parties across Europe, including Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland and France’s National Rally, and last month weighed in on the Hungarian election in support of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, though Orbán was defeated. Vance also responded to a British far-right rally organized by Tommy Robinson by encouraging anti-immigration activists to “keep on going.”
Net migration to the UK nearly halved between 2024 and 2025, according to the column, which cited data from the Institute for Government’s Sam Freedman. The decline was driven mainly by foreign students and foreign workers leaving the country, not by an exodus of British citizens. Small boat crossings across the English Channel also fell compared to the previous year.
The Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff wrote that the past few days served as “a warning not to take our political sovereignty for granted. Sooner or later, we may need to defend it.”