“The attacks last night [Tuesday] against Southampton police officers were a disgrace and completely unacceptable,” denounced British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Parliament on Wednesday. The street violence fueled by the stabbing murder of young Henry Nowak has led Labour and Conservatives to lash out at right-wing populist Nigel Farage, accusing him of using the case to incite hatred.
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Farage has an unpleasant grimace that press photographers have exploited for years, like someone who has unexpectedly swallowed lemon juice. Normally, however, it is also an expression that denotes self-satisfaction. Except this Wednesday, during the Prime Minister’s Questions session (the format that inspired the Spanish Congress’s government control session). The populist politician’s face, who has been inflaming UK public debate for over a decade, was on this occasion that of someone who knows he must swallow the toad that keeps him alive. The boos and shouts from other MPs, of all colors, showed obvious contempt for the character, as the far-right leader stirred the waters again with Nowak’s murder, stabbed by a Sikh man in Southampton last December.
“It has become clear to millions of people in this country that we live under a police regime of double standards (…) Officers are instructed to treat different ethnic groups differently,” Farage claimed. He was referring to the officers who handcuffed 18-year-old Nowak after he had received three stab wounds from Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man who lied to the officers, claiming he was the one who suffered racist attacks from the young man. Nowak died agonizing at the crime scene despite the officers’ attempts to revive him after realizing their mistake. Digwa was sentenced on Thursday by a judge to a whole life order, after being accused of dishonoring his family, community, and religion with his lies.
“The rage and circumstances of his death, the fury seen last night [Tuesday] on the streets of Southampton risk escalating,” Farage warned in the House of Commons, referring to violent clashes of hundreds of people against police officers outside the Southampton police station. They had been called by far-right agitator Tommy Robinson. But hours earlier, it was Farage himself who called on his followers for a response of “pure cold rage” regarding the Nowak case.
“Condemn the violence! Shame! Condemn the riots!” many MPs shouted at Farage, hearing the cynicism in his speech. The Tuesday night incidents ended with 11 officers injured and two protesters arrested.
Farage’s look of annoyance did not escape anyone. Least of all Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took the opportunity to harshly attack the far-right leader. “Henry Nowak’s parents have set an example of dignity by asking us to behave as human beings and not exploit the case,” Starmer said. “And his response [Farage’s] has been to call for rage (…). It has been exploiting this tragedy to create division. When the family has expressly asked that this not be done, it is unforgivable.”
Hampshire Police, under whose jurisdiction Southampton falls, has opened an investigation into the incident. At least one of the officers involved has resigned, and Chief Constable Alexis Boon has apologized to the Nowak family.
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Call for calm
The Labour Party, currently in government, and the Conservative Party have shown an uncommon image of unity in response to the reactions provoked by this crime. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch avoided making the issue the central theme of her parliamentary confrontation with the Prime Minister and made a general call for calm. “The circumstances surrounding his tragic murder and wrongful arrest should be a wake-up call for the whole country and its institutions, so that we understand that ‘all lives matter’ and that all members of this House have the responsibility to unite citizens, not divide them,” she said.
But neither Badenoch nor Starmer’s government have been able to avoid succumbing to the discussion framework created by the far right. By saying “all lives matter,” the Conservative leader expressed her rejection of the Black Lives Matter movement, which arose after the death of black citizen George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. His cries of “I can’t breathe,” under a police officer’s knee, have sounded like a tragic echo in the case of young Nowak. He also repeated the same phrase, up to nine times, while officers handcuffed him and doubted his complaints. The perfect analogy for Farage and all his followers, who have been spreading the incendiary idea for years that the British police use double standards to treat ethnic minorities.
It does not matter that official statistics make clear that racial minority groups in the UK are much more likely to suffer police abuse, or that they end up arrested up to four times more than white citizens in arrest and search processes. Starmer’s government has ordered a review of the so-called Police Race Action Plan, a plan of recommendations approved by British police authorities in 2024 (during the last Conservative government), which arose precisely in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, and which called on officers not to treat situations that were unfairly different in the same way (colour blind, or without color distinction).
“We do not believe the language used [in the plan] was correct. It is necessary, and important, to affirm that there is a long history of racism in the police that must be recognized, and we must ensure it disappears (…) But this document [referring to the police plan] does not seem the right way, and it is logical that it is reviewed,” admitted Sarah Jones, the Government’s Security Secretary under Starmer, on Wednesday.
Farage, overtaken by the right
Farage’s drift, who on previous occasions has been very careful not to be tainted by extremisms like activist and agitator Robinson’s, is explained by the threat that has arisen on his right flank. Years of ultra agitation have created a clientele that no longer tolerates half measures.
Rupert Lowe, who was a member of Reform UK, Farage’s party, until his expulsion last year, launched a new party, Restore, which has managed to dominate the most virulent messages and narratives on social media, and fragment the far-right vote enough to weaken Farage’s strategy and his dream of someday reaching Downing Street. The populist politician’s response, whom all his rivals recognize for his cunning, has been to incite xenophobic violence with the murder of young Nowak.
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