Starmer urges calm as far right seeks to exploit Henry Nowak murder

Kier Starmer condemned Nigel Farage for try to stir up division. Photograph: James McCauley/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Kier Starmer condemned Nigel Farage for try to stir up division. Photograph: James McCauley/Shutterstock Starmer urges calm as far right seeks to exploit Henry Nowak murder Prime minister echoes family’s plea that case should not be used to target communities Politicians and community leaders have called for calm amid fears that the populist right is using the murder of Henry Nowak by a Sikh man to whip up racist resentment against minority ethnic Britons. After Nigel Farage called for the public to respond with “pure, cold rage”, Keir Starmer condemned the Reform UK leader, saying Nowak’s family had explicitly asked that the case not be used to target particular communities. Starmer said in a TV interview at Downing Street: “Nigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division. He would be wrong in any circumstances, but when Henry’s family are saying, ‘Please don’t do that, it’s our son’, then really, as politicians, as human beings, we should start where they start.” View image in fullscreen Vickrum Digwa was jailed by a UK court on June 1 for life for killing 18-year-old student Henry Nowak. Photograph: Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary/AFP/Getty Images Nowak, an 18-year-old university student, was fatally stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, who used a Sikh dagger, in Southampton in December 2025. Digwa falsely claimed he had been racially abused and attacked by Nowak. Body camera footage released by Hampshire police showed Nowak being handcuffed despite repeatedly telling police officers that he had been stabbed. At one point an officer tells him: “I don’t think you have, mate.” Kirpans and UK knife law: what are the rules? Read more The treatment of Nowak by police has been highlighted repeatedly during Digwa’s trial by US hard-right commentators, including Elon Musk, who have argued it shows “two-tier” policing in which accusations of racism are prioritised. In what he described as an “emergency address” sent out via social media on Tuesday morning, Farage repeated this argument, warning that what he termed as an excessive focus on racial equality could lead to “the destruction of society”. He said: “Enough of anti-white prejudice. A promotion of the idea that white lives matter just as much as black lives.” The phrase “white lives matter” originally emerged among US white nationalists as a riposte to the Black Lives Matter movement. On Tuesday evening, a crowd of hundreds of people gathered outside Southampton police station after the far-right activist Tommy Robinson called on people to gather for a “Justice for Henry Nowak” protest. View image in fullscreen Tommy Robinson attends a demonstration after the conviction of Digwa. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters Some chanted: “Racist police, off our streets” and “Shame on you”. They held up union flags and home-made signs including: “Henry’s