Henry Nowak police must answer ‘serious questions’ over handling of murder says Starmer as he admits bodycam footage of stabbed student pleading for help left him ‘sick’

Police must answer serious questions about their treatment of Henry Nowak in the minutes before he died, including how false claims that he was a racist influenced their actions, Keir Starmer said this evening.

The Prime Minister said he ‘felt sick’ after watching bodycam footage of the teenager unsuccessfully pleading for help from officers after being brutally attacked by Vickrum Digwa.

Nowak, 18, repeatedly said ‘I can’t breathe’ and begged for an ambulance after being stabbed six times by stranger Digwa, 23, last December.

But officers instead arrested and restrained the dying college student after falsely telling him that he had racially abused his killer; he scoffed at the request for help.

Nigel Farage persistently caused outrage today He complained about ‘white lives matter too’ and ‘two-tiered’ justice.

Kemi Badenoch also intervened, saying ‘all lives matter’ but criticizing Mr Farage for ‘reinforcing difference’ by focusing on race.

Speaking to broadcasters this evening, Sir Keir also criticized Mr Farage but said Hampshire Police should explain ‘how accusations of racism affected the decision-making process in this case’.

The Prime Minister said the images were ‘distressing’ and added: ‘I must say that, as the father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick while watching them.’

Police body camera footage shows innocent 18-year-old victim Henry Nowak being forcibly handcuffed by police officers after he was stabbed multiple times by a knife-obsessed Sikh man.

Killer Vickrum Digwa is seen lying to police when he says he ripped off the teenager’s hijab during a racist attack

Henry was a finance student at the University of Southampton and was described by his family as ‘kind and talented’.

Nigel Farage insists ‘white lives matter too’ amid outrage over teenager’s final moments

Digwa used an eight-inch ceremonial dagger to carry out the murder in Southampton city centre. The injured student was later arrested while he was dying on the ground, choking on his own blood.

The killer, who was jailed for at least 21 years yesterday, did not know Mr Nowak but told a ‘bad lie’ to police officers that he had been racially abused, punched and had his turban blown off.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood told MPs today that ‘we cannot allow this murder to pit communities against each other’ and said anger should be aimed at ‘those who committed this heinous crime, not those who share the same faith or ethnicity’.

Earlier a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: ‘There is no such thing as two-tier policing.’

Hampshire Police were forced to apologize to Mr Nowak’s family for arresting the fatally injured teenager last week.

Deputy Chief Constable Robert France told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m sorry he was handcuffed and arrested.’

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating how officers acted.

The case sparked international outrage, with tech billionaire Elon Musk proposing to launch a special investigation against the police. There are also questions about whether anti-racism training affects police officers’ decisions.

Keir Starmer reacted to the incident last night, saying it was ‘right’ to investigate police actions

Mr Farage said the public should react with “pure cold anger” because he said Mr Nowak was “treated in a way that essentially means an accusation of a racial slur should be taken more seriously than an act of murder”.

‘We live in a two-tiered culture in this country, where the rights and privileges of white people are less important than those of ethnic minorities,’ he warned.

The Reform England leader said: ‘What does he say? I can’t breathe.

‘Familiar words. Remember career criminal George Floyd, who died under horrific circumstances in the American Midwest a few years ago.

‘Do you remember the reaction to this and the behavior of the police? Within days Keir Starmer was on his knees. Black Lives Matter protests exploded across the country. Churchill’s statue was vandalized, the cenotaph was vandalized.’

But Sir Keir tonight accused him of going against the wishes of Mr Nowak’s family with his inflammatory comments.

The Prime Minister told broadcasters: ‘I think Nigel Farage’s reaction was the wrong one and I start my answer to your question from the family’s perspective.

‘They said they didn’t want this to become even more exaggerated. They had the most extraordinary, most terrifying experience. They don’t want this to be whipped up.

‘And it’s completely wrong for Nigel Farage to use this to create division.

He’s wrong anyway, but if Henry’s family is saying please don’t do this, he’s our son, then politicians as human beings really should start where they start. That’s where I start.’

Public comment on the case had previously been limited to avoid damaging the case, and police released the footage following the sentencing.

The attorney general’s office is considering the prison sentence after receiving ‘multiple requests’ for it to be reviewed under the extremely lenient sentencing (ULS) scheme.

A photograph released by the Crown Prosecution Service shows the eight-inch ceremonial dagger used by Digwa

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ms Badenoch said: ‘What Nigel Farage has done is amplifying the difference.

‘I said that we should find our commonalities, not the things that separate us. I don’t want to hear about Black Lives Matter. I don’t want to hear about White Lives Matter. We are all important.

‘Enough of this nonsense where we keep separating everyone and dividing people into different groups. We are heading towards tribalism. I don’t want this. That’s why I say we should be a multi-ethnic country, not a multi-cultural country.’

In the newly released footage, it is seen that the young man said “I was stabbed” four times, and one of the police officers responded, “I don’t think you have a boyfriend.”

Officers pull Mr. Nowak to the ground as he continues to plead for help, and he tells them he can’t breathe at least seven times before he is ordered to put his hands in handcuffs.

Southampton Crown Court heard the student died of choking on his own blood shortly after his wrongful arrest.

The footage also shows Digwa telling the police that his victim was not stabbed. A female police officer replies: ‘I know, but we need to check, right?’

Cabinet Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has said the Government will not take another look at the exemption allowing Sikhs to carry knives.

He told the BBC: ‘There is an exception for carrying bladed items in public for certain religious and ceremonial reasons.

‘And of course as we tightened the law, banning things like scary zombie knives, we also tightened the law on buying knives online.

‘I don’t think this is about looking at that exception in a broader sense.

‘In fact, if you look at what the judge said in this case, the judge actually said that you can forget the feeling that the moment the perpetrator unsheathes the knife there is some kind of exception to the law.

‘He also said that this perpetrator’s willingness to use a sharp-edged instrument was an abuse of the privilege that Sikhs, and indeed other religions, enjoy. ‘The abuse of this privilege was something that made this case worse.’