UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has hit out at people “trying to interfere in our democracy” after US Vice President JD Vance waded into a national controversy by blaming “mass migration” for the recent murder of a student .
The killing of Henry Nowak , an 18-year-old White student, sparked a national outcry after it emerged that police officers had handcuffed him as he lay dying from stab wounds inflicted by Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man, in an attack late last year.
Digwa, who at the time falsely claimed to police that he had been the victim of a racist attack, has since been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but the case has been co-opted by the far-right to accuse British institutions including the police of being biased against White Britons.
Vance joined the debate on Friday, pointing to the failure to stop the “flow of mass migration” as the reason for Nowak’s death.
The student would still be alive, Vance wrote in a post on X, if “the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants.”
Soon after Vance’s comment a spokesperson for Starmer warned against people who are “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”
The Downing Street statement, which did not mention Vance directly, continued, “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.”
The exchange came a day after the US Department of State sent condolences to Nowak’s family in a post on X, in which it appeared to suggest “two-tiered policing” had played a role in the incident, echoing a key talking point among right-wing figures that claims police officers have become so fearful of being accused of racism that ethnic minorities are given greater protection.
“Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West,” it said.
Downing Street pushed back on the claim, with the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy saying “mistakes can happen in any public service,” that investigations are rightly ongoing and that the “system is working.”
“We don’t recognise the characterisation of two-tiered policing,” he said.
Nowak, a freshman finance student, was traveling home from a night out with his friends when he was killed on December 3, 2025. Digwa stabbed him five times, causing significant internal bleeding from a chest wound, local police said in a statement .
Responding to the incident, police placed Nowak in handcuffs after falsely being told by Digwa he had been the victim of a racist attack. In upsetting bodycam footage released by Hampshire Police, Nowak pleaded with officers, saying, “I can’t breathe” and “I’ve been stabbed.” An officer replied, “I don’t think you have, mate.”
CNN’s Issy Ronald contributed reporting.
