UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is suggesting that the US is meddling in British politics, after Vice President JD Vance linked the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Henry Nowak to European immigration policies. In a Friday X post, Vance claimed that Nowak would still be alive if European leaders had resisted what he called “the mass invasion of migrants,” and that “we love our civilization.” “Each time a life like his is lost, the proper response—the only response—is righteous anger,” Vance noted in his post. They’re comments that Downing Street has since condemned as an attempt to “interfere in our democracy” and “stir up division on our streets,” per the Independent. Nowak’s family has asked politicians not to use his death to fuel tension.
The clash follows bodycam footage showing Nowak handcuffed on the ground, repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe, after his killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, falsely claimed Nowak had racially abused him. Nowak died soon after. Digwa, meanwhile, has been jailed for life, with a minimum term of 21 years. The Trump administration has also accused the UK of “two-tier policing”—what the AP describes as “bias against white people in the British justice system,” a charge that Downing Street rejects. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey urged Britons to resist efforts, from US “MAGA politicians like Vance” and their UK allies, to turn the case into a political weapon. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is probing Hampshire Police’s handling of the incident.
