Henry Nowak’s family have appealed for politicians to rebuild public trust in the police and urged the nation not to let anger over their son’s murder tear communities apart — as they prepared for a private meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street on Thursday.
The 18-year-old student’s mother, father and stepmother first met Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, before heading to Downing Street to speak directly with Sir Keir. Badenoch said the family had asked for “work across political parties and religions to rebuild trust in the police” in the aftermath of the case, and that they had agreed the country needed to “bring common sense back” to policing and equality under the law. “I promised the family that we will work to ensure there is a positive legacy for Henry out of this tragedy. That is my focus now,” she wrote on X.
The family’s message was one of unity rather than division. “Henry’s family do not want anger to tear communities apart,” Badenoch wrote. “They are a family who have friends across faith and race, and so did Henry. His family want his memory to help bring our society together.”
The meetings come in the wake of violent protests near the scene of Henry’s murder that led to two arrests and left 11 police officers and a police dog injured. Henry was stabbed six times by Vickrum Digwa, who then falsely told responding officers that Henry had racially abused him and knocked off his turban. Officers handcuffed Henry as he lay dying, ignoring his pleas that he had been stabbed and could not breathe. Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years on Monday.
Sir Keir said there were “questions that need to be answered” over the police response to the murder, and urged the Independent Office for Police Conduct to be given space to “get on with their job” in investigating the conduct of the officers involved. He also took aim at both Nigel Farage and Elon Musk over their handling of the case. Farage had called on the public to respond with “pure, cold rage” — remarks that Sir Keir branded “unforgivable,” accusing the Reform UK leader of “only pretending” to sympathise with a family that had specifically asked for their son’s death not to be used to create division.
The prime minister was equally pointed in his criticism of Musk, who has shared multiple posts about the murder, including a video from far-right activist Tommy Robinson in which Robinson claimed Nowak was “murdered by racist police policies that target white people.” Musk also wrote “it is this or death” in apparent endorsement of a post by Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe calling for Digwa to be put to death “with the British people’s approval.” Sir Keir said: “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.”
