Downing Street has sharply criticized U.S. Vice President JD Vance after he blamed the murder of British teenager Henry Nowak on what he described as a “mass invasion of migrants.”
Nowak was fatally stabbed in Southampton last December by Vickrum Digwa, who had falsely accused the student of a racist attack leading police to initially handcuff the dying teenager.
In a post on X, Vance stated that Nowak would still be alive “if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, may of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”
He further called for “righteous anger” regarding the case.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer hit back at the intervention, warning against attempts “to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”
Downing Street emphasized that the victim’s family, who are grieving his “horrific murder” have explicitly stated “they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
The spokesperson added, “We should be respecting their wishes. Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances.”
