British PM urges calm after protests over handcuffed student’s death

By Sarah Young and Kate Holton, Reuters

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned violent protests over the case of an 18-year-old who was handcuffed as he lay dying after his killer falsely alleged a racist attack, and said it was “unforgivable” to exploit it to stir tensions.

The murder of student Henry Nowak last year has dominated headlines in Britain since his Sikh killer was sentenced on Monday, and footage of officers ignoring the pleas of a dying, innocent man has sparked a political storm about how police treat different ethnicities.

“There is no justification for more violence and disorder,” Starmer said on Wednesday, after protesters clashed with police and injured 11 officers on Tuesday night in the city of Southampton, in southern England, close to where Nowak was killed.

“This is a time for serious work, not rage,” Starmer added in a direct rebuff to the leader of the right-wing anti-immigration Reform Party, Nigel Farage.

Farage had called for people to respond to Nowak’s murder with “pure cold rage”, and told parliament that the anger on show in Southampton could spread if people lose faith with the police.

Reflect on father’s call for calm

In the attack last December, Nowak’s killer Vickrum Digwa, 23, lied to police saying that Nowak had racially abused and assaulted him during a brief altercation in the street.

In police bodycam footage, he is seen lying on the ground saying, “I’ve been stabbed” and “I can’t breathe” as he’s being handcuffed, while an officer responds, “I don’t think you have, mate”.

Digwa was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.

Court pathologists found that Nowak would have died of his injuries at the scene regardless of the emergency response. Officers later called an ambulance and performed CPR.

Nowak’s family called his treatment by police “inhumane and degrading” but said after the sentencing that his death should not be “used to create further division, hatred or tension”.

“We all need to reflect on those words of Henry’s father,” Starmer said, adding that he did not believe there was “two-tier policing” in Britain.

Police ethnicity guidelines under review

In recent years, Farage, along with others on the right including US billionaire Elon Musk, have argued that efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion among institutions such as the police, have created a two-tiered system where fears of being called racist have led to ethnic minorities being given greater protections than others.

Musk, a vocal critic of Britain’s government, has posted repeatedly about the case.

Previously a supporter of Farage, he now endorses the more right-wing Restore, which could peel away some of Reform’s vote in a local election later this month.

In the wake of the Nowak case, British police chiefs said they would review guidelines which were drawn up in response to well-documented incidents of racism in policing, which had advised officers to treat ethnicities differently.

In the Nowak case, Starmer said there were “serious questions to answer”, including how accusations of racism informed police thinking.

An independent investigation into police conduct is underway, which Starmer said would get to the bottom of what happened. Hampshire Police has apologised over its handling of Nowak’s death.

One officer resigned last year and that officer along with three others are being treated as witnesses in the investigation. Farage, whose party has led opinion polls for more than a year, tried to draw parallels with the 2020 killing of George Floyd in the US, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, contrasting it with what he said had been a muted response to the Nowak death.

Floyd had said “I can’t breathe” as a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

- Reuters