Europe’s far right exploit Henry Nowak murder in UK with populist rhetoric on race

 

Europe’s far right exploit Henry Nowak murder in UK with populist rhetoric on race

 

Polish, Spanish and French populists focus on clips of teenager’s dying moments and accuse UK of descending ‘into depths of the earth’

 

Rajeev Syal and Kim Willsher

Thu 4 Jun 2026 12.10 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/04/polish-far-right-nowak-britain-descent-depths-earth

 

Polish far-right politicians have claimed that the murder of Henry Nowak symbolises “Britain’s descent into the depths of the earth” as populists from France, Spain and Japan focused on harrowing clips of his dying moments.

 

Despite pleas from Nowak’s family for people not to exploit the killing for political gain and to focus on cutting knife crime, their comments have focused on race and immigration.

 

Police footage showing Nowak’s final few minutes of life have been shared across the world. The 18-year-old was arrested and handcuffed as he lay dying from stab wounds, while his murderer, Vickrum Digwa, who had stabbed him five times, lied to police that he had been racially abused.

 

Marta Czech, a member of the far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown, was questioned about Nowak’s murderer at an activists’ meeting last week in Hammersmith, west London. She called for a “defence of Poles in our country and abroad”.

 

Nowak’s father is understood to be of Polish descent.

 

She said: “We don’t have politicians who will care about Polish interests, or Poles, who will represent our values abroad, people with a Polish face, with a Polish passport. We need to be ready to repress these attacks. We must unite against such attacks.”

 

Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik, a Polish MEP in Viktor Orbán’s grouping, described Digwa, a British citizen, as “an Indian”. In a post on Facebook, Zajączkowska-Hernik blamed “mass immigration”, adding: “This story symbolises Britain’s descent into the depths of the earth … How brainwashed do you have to be with leftist propaganda and political correctness to react this way? And how can you even bring your country to such a state with mass immigration that undermines security?

 

“White lives don’t matter? Has the world reached this point, brainwashed by this suicidal, leftist ideology?”.

 

The far-right French politician Éric Zemmour, who organised rallies to protest against the rape and murder of a 12-year-old, Lola Daviet, in France in 2022, despite opposition from her family, said Nowak’s “immigrant perpetrator” was being protected by the “religion of anti-racism”.

 

He wrote on X: “This horrific murder is a metaphor for what the West is experiencing: the native is treated as a suspect, while the immigrant perpetrator is shielded by the religion of anti-racism, which paralyses government officials and police officers. This time, there will be no kneeling. Europeans, in their own homeland, are not allowed to do so.”

 

Santiago Abascal, the leader of the Spanish far-right party Vox, wrote that “the British people are burning with rage” over Nowak’s death.

 

He wrote on X: “The mainstream media, silent, as usual ... The globalist elites who have spawned this madness, also looking the other way. There are many responsible parties and accomplices in the atrocities we see daily in Europe. They should all be brought to justice, and one day they will be.”

 

A hard-right news aggregator in Japan called Hoshu-Sokuhou, which specialises in anti-Chinese and anti-Korean content, ran an article about the attack. It concluded: “This can be seen as a concrete example of the failure of multiculturalism and the result of the police prioritising political and racial considerations above all else, thereby losing sight of their fundamental duty to protect the lives of the public.”

 

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, suggested the British public react with “pure, cold rage” to the actions of police. Speaking during prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Farage repeated his claim that the incident was the result of “two-tier policing”, citing anti-racism guidance issued by senior officers.

 

Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, appeared to criticise Farage’s comments in the Commons, saying it was a “time for serious work, not rage” and that there was “no justification for more violence and disorder”.

 

A former police officer has been forced to flee to a safe space after she was falsely accused online of being involved in the Nowak murder. Christi Hill, who served as a police constable for 12 years, has criticised social media and AI platforms, including Elon Musk’s Grok, for spreading the false claim that she was one of the officers who arrested Nowak as he lay dying after being stabbed by Digwa.

 

Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years on Monday for Nowak’s murder in Southampton last December. The attorney general’s office said it had received “multiple requests” to review Digwa’s sentence under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

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Germany fails to win UN Security Council seat in major diplomatic setback for Merz

 

Germany fails to win UN Security Council seat in major diplomatic setback for Merz

 

Berlin partly blamed the “bitter defeat” on its steadfast support for Israel, which it suggested cost it key votes in the General Assembly.

 

June 3, 2026 9:27 pm CET

By Aitor Hernández-Morales

https://www.politico.eu/article/german-fails-to-win-un-security-council-seat-in-major-diplomatic-setback-for-merz/

 

Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a humiliating defeat Wednesday after the United Nations General Assembly snubbed Germany and instead awarded Portugal and Austria two non-permanent seats on the Security Council.

 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul attributed the “bitter defeat” in part to Berlin’s support for Israel, which he suggested cost his country key U.N. votes. He added that the outcome would not prevent Germany from continuing “to stand by our historical responsibility” to Israel.

 

Wadephul also accused the Kremlin of agitating against Berlin for its “unwavering support” of Ukraine by maneuvering to block it from the U.N.’s most powerful body. “It’s no secret that Russia doesn’t want such a voice at the Security Council table and has also stirred up sentiment against us,” he said.

 

Germany’s defeat not only represents a diplomatic setback, but it is also likely to fuel domestic criticism of an already-unpopular and politically weakened Merz, particularly because the chancellor ran for the office on a promise to restore his country’s leadership role within Europe.

 

Germany has, for decades, managed to win one of the non-permanent Security Council seats allocated to Western Europe every eight years. Ahead of the vote, Wadephul led an aggressive lobbying campaign, personally pressing his case to some 80 ministers or ambassadors around the world. But U.N. delegates ultimately favored Portugal and Austria, nations that the foreign minister appeared to dismiss as “smaller” European countries earlier this week.

 

The vote also marks the latest in a string of diplomatic victories for Lisbon, which has capitalized on its status as a neutral interlocutor between Europe and its former colonies in Africa, Asia and South America to consolidate itself as a major player on the global stage. Former prime ministers António Guterres and António Costa now respectively lead the U.N. and the European Council.

 

Austria’s successful quest for a seat on the Security Council similarly involved embracing its neutrality, which is constitutionally mandated. The country touted its lack of NATO membership in a bid to win over African, Asian and Latin American countries unhappy with Washington’s moves on the global stage.

 

In a video message posted on X after the results were announced, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said the world’s problems could not be solved through “dominance” and that his country would fight to defend multilateralism.

 

“It is not the right of the strongest that must prevail, but the strength of the law,” added Stocker. “A country’s value is not determined by its size, military power or economic strength: What matters is the equality of all states.”

 

Merz’s domestic political opponents were quick to attack the chancellor for Germany’s loss.

 

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said the defeat was an “embarrassment” that underscored the chancellor’s failure to restore the country’s international standing.

 

“While Merz wanted to bring our country ‘back onto the international stage’ at the beginning of his chancellorship, Germany now remains without a seat on the UN Security Council,” she wrote on X.

 

Even members of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which governs in coalition with Merz’s conservatives, characterized the defeat as a debacle.

 

Adis Ahmetovic, foreign policy spokesman for the SPD’s parliamentary group, depicted the vote as “a gauge of how [Germany] is perceived internationally.”

 

The results, he added, were “not a mere mishap, but a warning sign.”

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REMEMBERING 2 years ago: Grooming Gangs: Britain's Shame - The full documentary

Girls locked in cages, raped by 700 men: UK MP shares Pak grooming gang testimonies

 

Girls locked in cages, raped by 700 men: UK MP shares Pak grooming gang testimonies

 

British MP Rupert Lowe read out harrowing accounts of systematic sexual assault, violence, racial targeting, intimidation and alleged police misconduct, alongside allegations that public authorities, healthcare workers and children's home staff repeatedly failed to protect vulnerable children.

 

Some testimonies alleged that race and religion were used by some perpetrators to demean, isolate and exert control over victims.

 

India Today World Desk

India Today World Desk

UPDATED: Jun 3, 2026 09:08 IST

Written By: Satyam Singh

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/uk-mp-rupert-lowe-shares-pakistan-grooming-gang-shocking-testimonies-in-parliment-2921034-2026-06-02

 

British MP Rupert Lowe has reignited debate over the UK's 'grooming gangs' scandal after an emotional speech in Parliament in which he read testimonies of survivors. He told Parliament that the world should hear what was said during the two weeks of our independent rape gang inquiry hearings, which he said should never have needed to happen. He urged MPs to listen to the testimonies of these brave survivors and to finally act.

 

In his remarks, Lowe read out harrowing accounts of systematic sexual abuse, violence, intimidation, racial targeting and alleged police misconduct, alongside claims that public authorities, healthcare workers and children's home staff repeatedly failed to protect vulnerable children.

 

 

The testimonies were gathered during an independent inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation. According to material linked to that effort, a private investigation led by him last year identified "gang-based child sexual exploitation" in at least 85 areas across the UK. A statement issued by Lowe in August last year said "rape gangs", predominantly comprising men of Pakistani heritage, had been active for decades and were far more widespread than thought

 

HARROWING ACCOUNTS OF ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION

Among the accounts Lowe cited was one in which a survivor said: "He took his pants down, penetrated me, had sex with me. He then stopped before ejaculation. He picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels, which was now empty, and he forced it up inside me. He broke the glass while he was there. At that point, I was about 12, nearly 13."

 

Another testimony read out by Lowe said: "I was held down by the men as they each took turns to .... rape me, taking it in turns to pin down my arms and my legs. When the assault ended, the men hit me repeatedly, threatened to find me, kill me, and harm my loved ones if I ever told anybody what had happened."

 

Lowe also cited testimonies alleging that race and religion were used by some perpetrators to demean, isolate and exert control over victims.

 

One survivor said during inquiry hearings: "Comments were constantly made suggesting that white girls, the Christian girls, were viewed as having fewer morals or lower values, whereas Muslim girls were described by some of the men as having dignity and higher moral standing. These comparisons were used to justify the way I was treated and to further humiliate and control me."

 

Another testimony described how the victim's Christian faith was allegedly mocked during the abuse. "The main clash that I kind of had with the religion side of it was I grew up as a Christian. I would wear my cross because it was something really special to me. It was just used as a way to break me down. They said, 'Where is your God now? Has your God forsaken you?'"

 

POLICE ACCUSED IN SURVIVOR ACCOUNTS

The British MP also quoted a woman who alleged that some of her attackers were police officers. "Over the course of the abuse I was raped by multiple police officers in different parts of the country," the testimony stated.

 

Other accounts described the scale of abuse and what survivors said were failures by institutions to intervene. One testimony said: "It started when I was 13. I was raped by probably about six or seven hundred different men over three years."

 

Lowe also quoted a survivor who said: "I was bleeding from both my vagina and my back passage and was so swollen I could not sit down. I told hospital staff my drink had been spiked and I did not know what had happened because I was too afraid to tell the truth. They did not ask any questions. They gave me tablets and discharged me. I was 15 years old."

 

In another testimony, a survivor said: "Things would escalate around Eid and holidays. Parties got bigger, got worse, got more violent. More people involved, more girls involved. The parties were just bigger."

 

Lowe said the account was among the most disturbing testimonies presented during the inquiry.

 

He also cited testimony from a woman who alleged that she witnessed 15-20 women being held in cages and described being subjected to extreme abuse.

 

"There were men around me, not horrified, not disgusted, not helping, but filming and laughing, making bets on whether the dog could actually rape me or not. And yes, I was raped by a dog. The man just held my face, stared me down straight in the eyes, and he wanted to see me break. And he did," said another survivor.

 

Lowe concluded the series of testimonies with a survivor's appeal for action. "I just wanted it to stop and not happen to any other children and for people to actually act, to do something and stop being so scared. I could continue for hours and hours," the testimony said.

 

The UK MP then urged lawmakers to move beyond debate and take concrete action. "All of us in this building have a responsibility to finally act. Not to talk, but to act. Our rape gang inquiry report will be released in the coming days. It will change Britain for good," Lowe said.

 

WHAT ARE THE UK'S GROOMING GANGS?

In the UK, the term 'grooming gangs' is commonly used to describe cases in which vulnerable children and teenagers were manipulated, trafficked, intimidated, drugged or abused by multiple offenders over long periods. The phrase became known after investigations in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham uncovered organised child sexual exploitation and major failures by police, councils and social services to protect victims. The ongoing UK statutory inquiry says it is examining "the sexual abuse and exploitation of children by grooming gangs across England and Wales".

 

Background provided in the case history says reports of girls being groomed by gangs of men, largely of Pakistani heritage, first drew political attention in 2002, when then Labour MP Ann Cryer warned that it was happening in her West Yorkshire constituency of Keighley. In 2010, five men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12 to 16 in Rotherham in South Yorkshire. A later investigation by The Times exposed both the scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and a pattern of abuse by organised networks of predominantly British-Pakistani men. In the years that followed, gangs were jailed in more than a dozen towns, including Rochdale, Oldham, Telford, Bristol, Oxford, Huddersfield, Halifax and Banbury.

 

The term 'grooming gangs' became attached to cases in which girls aged 11 to 16, many of them white and from troubled backgrounds, were targeted in public, given attention, alcohol or drugs, and then deceived or forced into sex before being passed on to other men.

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Starmer criticises Elon Musk for trying to 'whip up division' in UK in light of Nowak murder

 

9m ago

11.01 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jun/04/henry-nowak-death-policing-justice-farage-jenrick-reform-badenoch-burnham-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-6a2132278f086468566b5249#top-of-blog

 

Starmer criticises Elon Musk for trying to 'whip up division' in UK in light of Nowak murder

 

Keir Starmer has criticised Elon Musk for trying to “whip up division” in the UK following the murder of Henry Nowak and the conclusion of the trial of his killer.

 

The PM spoke out after it was revealed that Musk has written more than 110 posts retweets and replies on X, the social media platform that he owns, about British politics since last Wednesday. That is far more than he has written about SpaceX, his company which is about to launch on the stock market.

 

Musk champions far-right politicians and parties on X, and most of his posts have been about the Nowak case, where he has strongly endorsed the view that the student was a victim of anti-white racism by the police. Although once close to Nigel Farage, Musk is now promoting Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party, which is even more extreme and anti-migrant than Reform UK.

 

Starmer normally avoids commenting on Musk, who has been fiercely critical of Starmer on X since early last year, when his tweets played a huge role in putting the grooming gangs scandal at the top of the political agenda.

 

But today, asked about Musk, Starmer said:

 

We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division, that is not who we are in Britain.

 

In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people.

 

When we have a terrible case like Henry’s case, Henry Nowak, we react calmly as his family have done.

 

Today the Financial Times has published a report about Musk’s recent interventions. In their story, Amy Borrett, Rachel Rees and Joel Suss say:

 

Elon Musk’s interventions in UK politics have reignited over the past week, prompting concerns about the influence of the world’s richest man ahead of a byelection that could trigger a change in prime minister.

 

Musk has written more than 110 posts, retweets and replies about British politics since last Wednesday on his social media platform X, with a focus on the murder of student Henry Nowak.

 

UK politics accounted for more than one-third of his X activity over the past week, according to FT analysis – almost three times the share devoted to SpaceX, even as Musk sought a $1.8tn valuation in his satellite and AI company’s highly anticipated IPO on 12 June.

 

Starmer was speaking in a pooled TV interview, and he criticised Musk’s interventions in the Nowak scandal after being asked about the decision by the Labour MP Jess Asato to take legal action against Musk’s xAI company over its Grok tool being used to produce a fake sexualised pictures of her.

Reform UK gets £9m in donations in first quarter of 2026, including £7m from two crypto billionaires

 

2h ago

09.31 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jun/04/henry-nowak-death-policing-justice-farage-jenrick-reform-badenoch-burnham-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-6a2132278f086468566b5249#block-6a2132278f086468566b5249

 

Reform UK gets £9m in donations in first quarter of 2026, including £7m from two crypto billionaires

 

The Electoral Commission has published its figures for donations to political parties in the first quarter of 2026 and they show that Reform UK was given £9m. Lucy White from Bloomberg was the first with the numbers.

 

NEW: Reform UK has once again smashed party donation totals, raising more than £9m in the first quarter. Boosted by another £3m from Thailand-based crypto investor Harborne - just before Labour capped donations from overseas - and £4m from crypto entrepreneur Ben Delo

 

We knew about the Delo donation. As Rowena Mason reported in April, Delo, a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business, said that he had given Reform UK £4m this year.

 

Delo has also said that he is going to move back to the UK so that he won’t be affected by the Labour legislation imposing a £100,000 a year cap on how much people living abroad can donate to political parties.

 

The ban came into force on 25 March, the day it was announced by Steve Reed, the communities secretary. It will affect Christopher Harborne, another cryptocurrency billionaire who is Reform UK’s biggest donor. He is a British citizen but lives in Thailand and he gave the party £12m last year.

 

Today’s figures show that he also gave Reform UK £3m in the first quarter of this year – suggesting that the money was handed over shortly before the cap came into force.

Robert Jenrick defends Reform UK's response to Henry Nowak's murder

 

Senior British police chiefs have warned that claims of "anti-white bias" and "two-tier policing" risk driving UK law enforcement "back to the 1960s."

 

Police chief warns anti-white bias claims could drive UK policing ‘back to 60s’

Senior British police chiefs have warned that claims of "anti-white bias" and "two-tier policing" risk driving UK law enforcement "back to the 1960s." This warning comes amid escalating political tensions and severe public disorder following a controversial murder case.

 

The Context

The debate ignited following the December 2025 fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton.

• The Incident: Nowak was killed by Vickrum Digwa.
• The Controversy: Public outrage peaked after revelations that Hampshire Police initially handcuffed and arrested the dying victim, Nowak, rather than immediately detaining his killer.
• The Police Response: Hampshire Chief Constable Jeremy Boon issued a formal apology to Nowak’s family for the treatment. However, he strongly rejected accusations of systemic bias.

Political Backlash and "Two-Tier" Claims

Right-wing political figures quickly seized on the case to criticize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks within the police force.

• Nigel Farage: The Reform UK leader used a House of Commons session to declare that the UK is living under "two-tier policing". He claimed that fear of being labeled racist causes frontline officers to treat cases differently based on race, urging people to respond to the killing with "pure cold rage".
• Policy Pressure: Prominent politicians have ramped up pressure on the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) to completely scrap existing race-bias and anti-racism policies.

The "Back to the 60s" Warning

In response to the political rhetoric, police leadership pushed back forcefully. Leaders warn that dismantling anti-racism frameworks and capitulating to "anti-white bias" narratives will destroy decades of progress in community relations. They argue it could regress British policing back to the 1960s era, which was defined by systemic discrimination, overt prejudice, and a total lack of accountability toward minority communities.

Fallout on the Ground

The political row has directly translated into real-world violence and online misinformation:

• Street Violence: Severe clashes erupted in Southampton, resulting in injuries to 11 police officers and a police dog.
• Targeting of Communities: Local community leaders reported a sharp rise in hate directed toward the Sikh community, requiring extra police patrols around religious buildings.
• Online Harassment: Social media platforms and AI tools falsely identified a former female police officer as one of the arresting officers at the scene, forcing her to flee her home into hiding.

If you would like to follow this developing situation further, I can provide more details on the parliamentary response from the Home Secretary or updates regarding the NPCC's review of police guidance

 

Police chief warns anti-white bias claims could drive UK policing ‘back to 60s’

 

Police chief warns anti-white bias claims could drive UK policing ‘back to 60s’

 

Senior police figures are pushing back against politicians they accuse of stoking tensions over Henry Nowak’s murder

 

Vikram Dodd, Steven Morris and Peter Walker

Wed 3 Jun 2026 22.09 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/03/police-chief-warns-anti-white-bias-claims-could-drive-uk-policing-back-to-60s

 

Policing could be driven back to the 1960s by false claims officers are biased against white people, the leader of Britain’s black officers has said.

 

Ch Insp Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, spoke out amid growing concerns that politicians such as Nigel Farage were stoking tensions around the murder of teenager Henry Nowak by making baseless and provocative claims.

 

Senior figures in policing were among those who pushed back against his assertion that the handcuffing of Nowak by officers in Southampton last December after he had been stabbed amounted to two-tier policing and a bias against white people.

 

They also denounced Farage for saying the response to the killing demanded “cold rage”.

 

Keir Starmer accused the Reform UK leader of ignoring the wishes of the dead teenager’s family and called the Reform leader’s actions “unforgivable”.

 

Nowak’s father, Mark, had condemned the “inhumane and degrading” treatment of his son by police.

 

But he added: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to help make our streets safer for everyone.”

 

Hampshire’s chief constable, Alexis Boon, whose officers are under scrutiny over the way they dealt with the incident, on Wednesday apologised for the way Nowak had been arrested and handcuffed. He added: “I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through this.”

 

The killing of Nowak, an 18-year-old university student, has sparked a nationwide debate about policing.

 

The teenager was stabbed last December by Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been racially attacked by him.

 

In fact, Digwa had stabbed Nowak repeatedly, but officers arriving at the scene treated the student as a suspect. He was handcuffed and put under arrest, despite telling officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

 

The Guardian has learned that police chiefs have ordered a nationwide increase in intelligence gathering about potential violence believed to be linked to far-right protests, after 11 officers were injured in clashes in Southampton on Tuesday.

 

George said bogus claims from politicians such as Farage and far-right activists that policing is biased against white people could set back efforts to end systemic, longstanding prejudice against black people.

 

He said: “There is a danger of policing going back to a time long before Stephen Lawrence’s murder, to the 1960s and 1970s, because of the attacks from the far right which have been growing over the past few years, and which are becoming more mainstream.”

 

In the House of Lords, Doreen Lawrence, who fought police for justice after they failed her murdered son Stephen in 1993, said: “My condolences goes out to Henry Nowak’s family. I think what’s happened with him should never have happened. And the police should be at fault for what happened on that night,” she said.

 

Body cam footage of the student’s final minutes is accepted by police sources to be “traumatic”.

 

The incident is being investigated by policing watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

 

Sir Andy Cooke, who stood down in April as chief inspector of constabulary, told the Guardian he found no evidence of anti-white bias during his time scrutinising all forces in England and Wales.

 

He said politicians such as Farage were trying to “exploit” the Nowak case “to boost their political fortunes” and worsen community tensions.

 

Cooke, who was appointed by the Conservatives and won praise from both main parties, said: “Throughout my five years at the inspectorate, I found no evidence at all to support any claim there was an anti-white bias in operational policing.

 

“At a time when there is disquiet in some communities, this is no time to play politics with community tensions, particularly off the back of such a distressing incident that caused so much pain to the family of Henry Nowak.

 

“This should be a period of time where politicians respect the family’s wishes and do not try to exploit such a tragic and painful situation to boost their political fortunes.”

 

Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters

 

His intervention came as Southampton recovered from violence after protests led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. That followed Farage’s calls for “rage” at how Nowak was treated by police.

 

He had been stabbed by Digwa after a dispute flared out of control, but officers were unaware how seriously he was injured, ignored his pleas he had been stabbed for about three minutes and handcuffed him.

 

One senior police source said police believed politicians were attempting “to stoke up tensions for political gain”, making clear they meant Farage and Robinson, as well as some Conservatives, and “they were reckless about whether their comments would lead to trouble on the streets”.

 

In the House of Commons Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, warned against divisive rhetoric, and the prime minister condemned Farage for exploiting the tragedy for political gain.

 

“This is a time for serious work, not rage,” Starmer said, a response to Farage’s call to respond to the case with “pure, cold rage”.

 

Farage used a question to claim the UK was “living under two-tier policing”, saying this had led to “the anger that you saw spilling out in Southampton last night”.

 

Starmer called the Reform UK leader’s comments “unforgivable” and said: “A grieving family have asked us not to respond in the way that the leader of Reform has responded … His response has been to appeal for rage – rage. That’s his response to a father who has lost his son and asked for that not to happen. Exploiting this tragedy to create grievance and division would be wrong in any circumstances, but to do it when the family are expressly saying please don’t is unforgivable. It shows exactly who he is.”

 

Government and police are discussing a review of police promises on tackling racial bias against black people, however, ministers are convinced some of the wording is clumsy and open to attack.

 

In the Portswood area of Southampton, where anti-police protesters clashed with officers on Tuesday night, politicians and residents criticised the violence.

 

Satvir Kaur, the MP for Southampton Test and the first female Sikh to become a UK government minister, said she needed a security guard when she visited the area because she had received death threats.

 

Riot police line up during a protest attended by far-right figures in Southampton on Tuesday.

Community leaders said there had been an increase in hate aimed at Sikh people and some were changing their routines to avoid being targeted and there were extra police patrols around Sikh buildings.

 

Meanwhile, a former police officer was forced to flee to a safe space after she was falsely accused online of being involved in the arrest of Nowak.

 

Christi Hill, who served as a police constable for 12 years, has criticised social media and AI platforms, including Elon Musk’s Grok, for spreading the false claim that she was one of the officers who arrested Nowak. She said she had left the police more than a year before the murder.

 

Boon, Hampshire’s most senior officer, rejected claims of anti-white bias and said: “I don’t accept the term of two-tier policing, I don’t recognise it.”

 

He said some of the criticism directed at Hampshire constabulary has been “unfair”, in an interview with broadcasters.

 

 This article was amended on 4 June 2026. An earlier version misnamed the Southampton Test MP Satvir Kaur as “Satvir Khan”.

'What Farage didn't say in the commons really shocked me' | The Cathy Newman Show

 

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Newsnight panel debate Nigel Farage's "pure cold rage" Henry Nowak comments

Nigel Farage is being accused of playing politics with Henry Nowak's murder. This Is Why.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has launched an immediate review of its national "Anti-Racism Strategy" following intense backlash and accusations of "two-tier policing".

Anti Racism strategy to be reviewed by Police in the UK

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has launched an immediate review of its national "Anti-Racism Strategy" following intense backlash and accusations of "two-tier policing".

The decision follows the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak in Southampton, where police officers arrested the dying victim for alleged racial abuse based on the word of his attacker. Critics, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Policing Minister Sarah Jones, have heavily criticized the policy text.

The NPCC confirmed it is reviewing and amending the specific language, though it maintains the broader principle of improving trust with minority communities.

🚨 The Core of the Controversy

The strategy, originally formalized as part of the broader Police Race Action Plan, was designed to address historical race disparities and low confidence in law enforcement among Black and ethnic minority communities. However, specific phrases within the document sparked widespread political and public anger:

• Different Treatment: The guidance explicitly states that police should target outcomes by "responding to individuals and communities according to their specific needs" and that it "does not mean treating everyone 'the same' or being 'colour blind'."
• Accusations of "Two-Tier" Laws: Opponents argue this directive legally codifies positive discrimination, forcing officers to make operational or arrest decisions based on skin color rather than individual actions.

⚖️ Political and Government Reaction

The Home Office and political leaders have forcefully intervened to demand a return to objective, blind enforcement of the law:

• Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the guidance "clumsy," reminding officers they have a "sacred duty" to police without fear or favor, declaring that everyone must be equal in the eyes of the law.
• Policing Minister Sarah Jones publicly ordered an official review, calling the current wording "wrong".
• Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp slammed the document as "morally wrong," stating it effectively pressures police to manipulate arrest rates across different demographics.
• Conservative and Reform UK Leaders have called for the complete dismantling of race-based policing frameworks introduced since 2020.

📋 What Happens Next?

1.      Language Amendments: The NPCC is actively redrafting the text to remove directives that imply suspects should be handled differently based on ethnicity.

2.      Operational Safeguards: Individual forces, including Hampshire Constabulary, are facing independent scrutiny over how these diversity strategies affected frontline decision-making during active violent crimes.

3.      Broader Legislative Action: The review lands amidst a larger government crackdown on race-cohort policies; the Ministry of Justice simultaneously blocked separate, controversial court guidelines that would have required softer pre-sentencing reports for ethnic minority offenders.

 

Tommy Robinson Full Speech to Crowds at Henry Nowak Demonstration

 

Protesters, police and politicians clash over Henry Nowak murder

Trump’s revenge tour is blowing up in his face

 

Republicans Begin to Test the Limits of Trump’s Power by Flexing Their Own

News Analysis

Republicans Begin to Test the Limits of Trump’s Power by Flexing Their Own

 

The president’s unilateral and retributive style of governing is starting to hit a wall in both chambers of Congress.

 

Katie Rogers

By Katie Rogers

Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent. She reported from Washington.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/us/politics/republicans-trump-fund-iran-war-elections.html

June 3, 2026

 

On a tour through Asia last fall, President Trump took a moment on the world stage to celebrate a legislative victory at home: After months of iron-fisted pressure, he had compelled Republicans to pass legislation that cut taxes and slashed into the country’s social safety net.

 

“I said, ‘Put it all into one bill, and if we get it done, we’re done for four years,’” Mr. Trump said during an October speech in Tokyo. “We don’t need anything more from Congress in terms of that.”

 

Ever since, Mr. Trump has been intent on testing that theory, daring lawmakers to defy him and doing his best to vanquish them from office if they do. But after a retributive romp through primary season, Mr. Trump’s style of governing — unilateral, and often impatient — has collided with restive Republicans who seem to be exacting some political vengeance of their own.

 

On Wednesday evening, four House Republicans sided with Democrats to demand Mr. Trump withdraw U.S. forces from the conflict with Iran or win approval from Congress, rebuking a president who has repeatedly said he does not need congressional authorization to continue the conflict.

 

That came on the heels of another high-profile setback: a Republican revolt against a $1.8 billion fund to reward Trump supporters who claim political persecution by Democrats. Many Republican senators had indicated that they would not move forward with plans to fund Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda unless those plans were axed. This week, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said that the administration would abandon the effort.

 

But on Wednesday, just as the Senate moved to debate an immigration bill that they had held up because of the fund, Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he wasn’t quite sure if the fund was dead or on hold.

 

“I love it,” he told a reporter who asked about the pot of money, effectively jamming his foot in the way of a door lawmakers had hoped to close. “I think it’s so important.”

 

No wonder Republicans want to put something in writing.

 

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican whom Mr. Trump helped dispatch during the primaries, shared a Wall Street Journal editorial on social media earlier in the day, calling on Congress to pass legislation to kill the fund.

 

“The way to ensure the Trump retribution fund is more than mostly dead would be for Congress to put a stake through it,” Mr. Cornyn wrote, echoing the editorial.

 

(The senator, who has been posting up a storm about the concept of betrayal in recent days, added the word “retribution,” which did not appear in that sentence in the editorial. Last week, he shared a fable about a frog who was wronged by a scorpion.)

 

Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted in favor of impeaching Mr. Trump in 2021 and lost his primary, also supports legislation that would kill the fund. “You want to make sure it’s really dead,” he told reporters.

 

On other matters of national security, several Republicans pushed back on Mr. Trump’s decision to appoint Bill Pulte to serve as the acting director of national intelligence. In his role as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mr. Pulte publicized the personal mortgage information of several prominent Trump critics, and pushed for federal investigations into them.

 

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said in a CNBC interview on Wednesday morning that he did not believe Mr. Pulte “has a prayer” of being confirmed by the Senate. (Mr. Tillis announced that he would not run for re-election last year, after coming under threat from Mr. Trump for opposing the sweeping tax bill the president crowed about in Japan.)

 

He said that Mr. Trump’s decision to appoint Mr. Pulte had jeopardized congressional efforts to extend a high-profile warrantless surveillance law, which is scheduled for debate later this month: “I am tired of amateur hour,” Mr. Tillis said of the Trump administration.

 

Later, Mr. Tillis told reporters that “I feel like there are people advising the president as if there is no election in November.”

 

Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, defended Mr. Trump’s choice.

 

“The president chooses the best and most talented people to serve in his Cabinet. That is why this administration has achieved record successes for the American people,” Mr. Ingle said in a statement. “Bill Pulte is a great selection, and he will do a great job on behalf of the American people.”

 

Mr. Ingle added that holding up a vote on the surveillance law “puts America’s national security at risk and it is shameful that some Democrats are threatening to put partisan politics ahead of the safety of the American people.”

 

With five months until the midterm elections, Mr. Trump’s advisers are betting that voters will see all of this as classic Washington dysfunction born out of disloyalty to Mr. Trump. As evidence, those advisers have pointed to the trail of politicians who found themselves losing to Trump-backed challengers.

 

Outside of the White House bubble, others warn that Mr. Trump’s primary-season strength, predicated on mobilizing voters from the deepest-red depths of his base, may already be evaporating.

 

Representative Randy Feenstra of Iowa, who received a late endorsement from Mr. Trump, lost his primary race to his challenger, Zach Lahn, a conservative political operative and farmer.

 

Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, saw Mr. Feenstra’s loss as a sign that the administration’s policies have hit agricultural communities, particularly the rounds of tariffs and rising oil prices from the U.S. war in Iran. Mr. Murphy said that those policies, compounded with Mr. Trump’s unpopularity, have weakened Republicans more than the White House has admitted.

 

“He’s a gorilla in the Republican primaries, but he is a wounded sparrow among the general electorate,” he said of Mr. Trump. He said this has resulted in Republican senators trying to move away from Mr. Trump’s more politically toxic efforts.

 

“The realpolitik of this is: ‘Get me some distance from Trump,’” he added.

 

Lamar Alexander, the retired Republican senator of Tennessee who served until 2021, said that the president still has the opportunity to work with a chamber that “agrees with him 99 percent of the time” to preserve his legacy.

 

“He needs to take advice from independent-minded people rather than just people who work from him and who he can fire,” he said in an interview. “Purging senators who support him is not a good path toward creating a legacy that he will be proud of when he leaves.”

 

Annie Karni contributed reporting.

 

Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.