LIVE: Home Secretary to address MPs on Henry Nowak murder

The police handling of Henry Nowak’s murder has sparked outrage across Britain.

Jailed murderer Vickrum Digwa tricked bungling police officers into arresting his dying victim by accusing him of a racist attack – with his harrowing final moments captured on bodycam footage released last night.

Hampshire Police was forced to apologise to Mr Nowak’s family for the blunder and the conduct of the arresting officers is being examined by the police watchdog.

Here, the Daily Mail’s Jon Brady explains how the police got it so wrong:

Reform leader Nigel Farage has confirmed he has written to Attorney General Lord Hermer to refer the sentence of Vickrum Digwa.

Digwa, 23, was yesterday jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years for stabbing Mr Nowak, 18, six times with a religious blade he was carrying in Southampton.

Mr Farage has claimed Digwa should have been handed a whole-life tariff.

Before Ms Mahmood spoke in the Commons, Downing Street said there is ‘no such thing as two-tier policing’ and that officers must treat everyone equally.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said:

I think the Prime Minister is of the view that many police officers across this country do a fantastic job protecting people day in, day out.

Of course, it’s right that the police should be a meritocratic organisation, and as I’ve just said, it’s absolutely right that they should police without fear or favour.

There is no such thing as two-tier policing. We expect high standards from police officers, high standards of conduct, and they must treat everyone equally.

by Jack Hardy, News Reporter

A Sikh killer who murdered a student with a ceremonial knife was reported to police for stealing religious weapons two years earlier, but officers did not arrest him, the Mail can reveal.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed yesterday for stabbing stranger Henry Nowak, 18, with an eight-inch Sikh dagger he had been carrying in Southampton city centre last December.

He then tricked bungling police officers into arresting his dying victim by accusing him of a racist attack – with his harrowing final moments captured on bodycam footage released last night.

Mr Nowak’s father Mark accused officers of affording the killer ‘decency’ while the way they treated his son was ‘inhumane and degrading’.

The newly released footage showed the teenager desperately telling officers four times, ‘I’ve been stabbed’, to which one policeman replied: ‘I don’t think you have mate’.

Hampshire Police was forced to apologise to Mr Nowak’s family for the blunder and the conduct of the arresting officers is being examined by the police watchdog.

Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has accused Reform UK and Restore Britain of politicising pain and using the Sikh community as a ‘scapegoat’.

The MP for Slough said he was ‘deeply saddened by the murder of Henry Nowak’.

He continued:

What’s very galling is that the likes of Reform, Restore, and the far-right decided to politicise people’s pain, attacking the Sikh community for wearing the kirpan and wanting it banned, even though the kirpan was not used in this violent attack.

And they’ve decided to scapegoat and throw under the bus an entire community based on the actions of one violent murderer.

The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) is planning to report on the police handling of Henry Nowak’s murder in the next three months, Shabana Mahmood has said.

In her response to Southampton Itchen MP Darren Paffey in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary said:

The IOPC will and do have the resources that they need in order to conduct their investigation and I know that they will do so with the full independence that is afforded to them in our system.

I understand that they intend to report finally within the next three months, and I do believe that a meeting is now taking place with the family.

The Home Secretary has hit back at Robert Jenrick after the Reform MP called on her to say white lives matter ‘just as much as anyone else’ following Henry’s murder.

Addressing the Commons, Mr Jenrick said the police officer who handcuffed Henry should be prosecuted for what he described as a ‘total dereliction of duty’.

He went on to question whether police officers have been taught to elevate the perceptions of ethnic minority communities over the safety of white people.

In response, Ms Mahmood said it wasn’t the moment to ‘pit white Britons against non-white Britons’.

The murder of Henry Nowak ‘has horrified our city’, a Southampton MP has said.

Darren Paffey, the MP for Southampton Itchen, said:

Henry was a popular and much loved student at the University of Southampton, and his murder has horrified our city.

I want to commend everyone at the university for their response and support for the university community following this tragedy. I’ve watched the bodycam footage, and it is both heartbreaking and infuriating.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said we cannot allow the murder of Henry Nowak to ‘turn communities against one another’.

She told the Commons:

We cannot allow this murder to turn communities against one another. We must condemn those who seek personal political profit from tragedy. Instead, we must show who we really are in this country.

This was a murder, a vile and violent crime. The punishment must be reserved for those who are responsible for the act.

We do not believe in collective punishment in this country, instead we stand together against an act of pure evil. We condemn those who committed this heinous crime, not all those who share their faith or their ethnicity.

A Liberal Democrat MP has accused Nigel Farage of trying to divide Britain over Henry Nowak’s murder.

Max Wilkinson, the party’s spokesman on home affairs, said it is ‘incumbent’ on politicians across the house to respect the words of Henry’s father Mark Novak who said he did not want his son’s murder used to create hatred.

Mr Wilkinson told the Commons:

Since the sentencing and the release of the harrowing video showing the sickening incident, the vast majority of politicians have responded to this matter with due sensitivity, and that reflects well on this house.

It is therefore all the more disturbing that we have seen the Hon. For Clacton once again using tragedy to divide British communities. We all know why he does this. He has made a career out of this and has become rich as a result, but we are also well aware, as he is, that his actions are divisive, dangerous, and fundamentally un-British.

Mr Philp has called for a new anti-racism commitment for policing to be scrapped in the wake of Henry ‘s murder.

The commitment, launched last year by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, sets out a plan for a police force that is ‘anti-racist and trusted by Black people’.

Mr Philp told the Commons that ‘extreme activists’ had ‘hijacked’ the policy.

It has no place in policing, it has no place anywhere.

So, does the Home Secretary agree that the so-called police anti-racism commitment must urgently be withdrawn? It is morally wrong, and it is dangerous as well. Police forces must focus on catching criminals and keeping the public safe.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has told MPs that false allegations of criminals ‘cannot be tolerated’ as he responded to the Home Secretary in the Commons.

Mr Philp said Henry told police he could not breathe on nine occasions and said he had been stabbed four times

Can you imagine what he must have felt as he cried out for help and was ignored as the officers who should have worked to save him, instead handcuffed him and inquired after the welfare of his killer, standing just inches away.

He added:

We cannot tolerate a situation where false allegations of racism by criminals are believed. We cannot allow the color of someone’s skin to be a consideration in how the police or other public services treat people.