Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student, was murdered in December in Southampton after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man. Nowak was handcuffed by police while dying, and Digwa falsely claimed racial insult by Nowak, portraying himself as the victim [1, 2, 3, 4].
On June 5, US Vice-President JD Vance publicly blamed Britain's handling of the case on "civilisational decline" caused by mass migration. He said Nowak "died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him," and called for "righteous anger" in response. Vance argued that European elites' failure to resist the "politics of self-hatred" and migrant "invasion" meant Nowak would still be alive if they had acted differently. "Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life," Vance said, warning more deaths could follow [1, 2, 4].
On June 4, the US State Department condemned "ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing" as factors leading to the murder, calling it a symptom of civilisational decline [1, 2, 4]. On June 6, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described European migration policies as an "invasion" during a D-Day anniversary speech in France [3].
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office denounced Vance's comments as interference in UK democracy and fomenting division. UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy spoke with Vance on June 6, telling him he was wrong to blame mass migration for Nowak's murder. Lammy said, "This has got nothing to do with mass migration. This young man was a Brit. Let's be ... clear about that," adding that Nowak's murder is under multiple official UK investigations. "There is an investigation into the police by the independent police complaints authority. There is an investigation into Hampshire police by the inspectorate. The AG is looking at the sentencing," he said [1, 2, 3, 4].
Lammy emphasized that murder rates are decreasing in the UK and criticized calls for anger instead of legal inquiry over the case. The family of Henry Nowak has requested no further hatred be spread related to the case [1, 2].
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized UK policing of the case on social media platform X, prompting Starmer to accuse him of interfering in UK politics [1, 2, 4].
Official investigations into the case continue, with police watchdogs and the Attorney General reviewing actions surrounding the murder and police conduct [3].
