Police officer focused with demise threats after Henry Nowak homicide as Mahmood condemns ‘dangerous’ commentary’

Shabana Mahmood called for calm following Henry Nowak’s murder in Southampton as she told MPs that the ‘evil act’ must not lead to communities turning against each other

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Shabana Mahmood has warned of a “dangerous undercurrent” of misinformation following Henry Nowak’s murder as she said the teenager’s family will get answers.

In an impassioned plea, the Home Secretary called for calm and said the “evil act” must not lead to communities turning against each other. She promised that the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will have all the resources it needs to probe the way officers responded to the stabbing.

Horrifying bodycam footage showed Henry, 18, in handcuffs as he lay dying in December last year. He was stabbed by 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa who falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racial assault.

Despite Henry telling officers he had been stabbed, the harrowing footage showed one officer responding: “I don’t think you have mate.” MPs heard that a police officer had received death threats after being wrongly identified as being involved.

On Monday Digwa was jailed for a minimum of 21 years after being found guilty of murder. Ms Mahmood told the Commons: “It was an evil act.” Ms Mahmood told the Commons that the will carry out a full investigation into the tragedy in Southampton. She said: “We cannot allow this murder to turn communities against one another. We must condemn those who seek personal, political profit from tragedy.

“Instead, we must show who we really are in this country. This was a murder, a vile and violent crime. The punishment must be reserved for those who are responsible for the act. We do not believe in collective punishment in this country.”

The Home Secretary pushed back against Nigel Farage’s claim that the actions of police demonstrated a “two-tier” system discriminating against white people.

Earlier Keir Starmer paid tribute to Henry during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, telling members Digwa had shamelessly lied to police. He said it was right that the IOPC is investigating the police response.

The Home Secretary went on: “There have been accusations I know, of two-tier policing, that one community has been prioritised over another. It will be for the IOPC to determine the facts with regard to this specific case, and I cannot and will not comment on them.

“But let me say this on the question of preferential treatment more widely – the police in this country have a sacred duty to police without fear or favour. Everyone in this country is equal before the law. It is the promise upon which our whole justice system rests, and the equality of every citizen is the foundation on which the openness, tolerance and generosity of this country rests.”

Ms Mahmood told the Commons: “Let me also be clear about one other thing, a dangerous undercurrent that I have seen in the reaction to this awful crime. Threats against police officers are utterly unacceptable.

“There can be no justification for intimidation, abuse or attempts to take the law into one’s own hands. A police officer unrelated to this case has been misidentified online and subjected to death threats.

“He has been forced to relocate to protect himself and his family. Misinformation and inflammatory commentary is making a dreadful situation even worse. We must all together condemn it, and we must also allow the facts to be established with the appropriate investigations and the courts, and we must do so calmly and responsibly.

“The Novak family and Henry’s memory deserve answers.”

Reform UK leader Mr Farage was criticised by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch after he claimed: “We’re living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.” And he said: “We need a change in culture. White lives matter too.”

And he went on: “We should respond to this with pure cold rage.” Henry’s dad Mark Nowak told reporters outside court on Monday that the treatment his son received from police was “inhumane and degrading”. He went on: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to make our streets safer for everyone. That is why we are calling on the government to treat knife crime as the national emergency that it is.”

Ms Mahmood said: “I can and must pay tribute today to the dignified and powerful words of the Nowak family in the statement they gave after yesterday’s sentencing. They deserve answers.

“They deserve answers in particular, about what happened on that awful night and the actions of the police officers who arrived on the scene. I expect many in this House and many more across this country, have now seen the police officer’s bodycam footage released last night.

“It is, without question, a disturbing and tragic thing to see. People are rightly asking questions about how the situation was handled, and they are shocked and disquieted to hear Henry’s words ‘I can’t breathe’.”

On Tuesday morning Tory leader Kemi Badenoch criticised Mr Farage, telling GMB: “What Nigel Farage is saying completely misunderstands that when the case is happening, politicians – he is a politician by the way, just stop pretending that he’s not, he’s a politician like everyone else – we wait until the sentencing before we say what we think, so that we don’t impact the case.”

She said the case shows “something has gone horribly wrong with policing”. But pressed about Mr Farage’s “white lives matter” comment, Mrs Badenoch said: “We need to bring back equality under the law. What Nigel Farage is doing is reinforcing the difference. I have said that we need to find what we have in common, not what separates us.

“I don’t want to hear about Black Lives Matter. I don’t want to hear about White Lives Matter. We all matter. Enough of this nonsense where we keep separating everybody and splitting people into different groups, we are descending into tribalism.”

She went on: “What I do not like is seeing Nigel Farage jump on this issue when he doesn’t do any work, he doesn’t turn up to Parliament, he doesn’t take things seriously, but he sees this as an opportunity for him to grandstand.

“I am not grandstanding. I will say that a lot more needs to be done. Policing is operationally independent. I think we need to look a bit more at what is going on in terms of how the police are conducting themselves.”

And asked if Mr Farage’s actions made her angry, Mrs Badenoch said: “It is making me angry, because that’s not how we solve this. That’s not how we solve this. We can’t solve it by whipping people up. We can’t solve it by making the boundary.”