Downing Street rejects US claim of ‘two-tiered policing’ over Henry Nowak death – UK politics live
Downing Street rejects US suggestion of ‘two-tiered policing’
Downing Street has rejected the US state department’s suggestion of “two-tiered policing” in the UK, while insisting Britain’s relationship with the US remains “incredibly strong”.
In a statement, the prime minister’s spokesperson referred to comments made by David Lammy this morning during a media round (see post at 09:19). The spokesperson said: “We do reject any suggestion of two-tier policing in the United Kingdom.
“The deputy prime minister [David Lammy] said mistakes can be made in any public service, it is right there is now an investigation going on.”
When asked how Keir Starmer would characterise the UK-US special relationship, the spokesperson said: “As ever, it is incredibly strong.
“We work with them on a number of fronts right across out systems and this remains.”
Ministers are “in regular touch” with their US counterparts, they added.
Key events
Lisa O’Carroll
The EU has said Keir Starmer’s upcoming summit “resetting” the UK-Europe relationship may still happen in July, amid growing fears it could be postponed to the autumn as talks over youth mobility remain deadlocked.
“The summit is supposed to be mid-July but at the moment it could be put back to after the summer,” said one EU diplomat.
“There is common concern that momentum is being lost. Negotiations always continue until the moment the clock stops and then you have a text the next morning, but because there is no deadline, the pressure is off,” the source added.
Speaking at a conference in Brussels, the EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, said: “I believe that still the expectation is that we would have the summit, most probably in July.”
Asked if talks were deadlocked on a scheme to allow under-30s to travel freely on a three-year visa scheme for youth, he said it was one of the top three issues, and one that EU ministers cared deeply about.
Harry Cockburn
A group of Sikh MPs have released a statement condemning the “brutal” murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak and said the killing “was not about Sikhism”.
The 11 MPs said the “horrific and senseless” crime underscores broader concerns about knife crime, but also highlighted that the weapon used was not a kirpan – the small ceremonial dagger commonly carried by Sikh men.
The prosecution told the jury at Southampton crown court that although Vickrum Digwa was also wearing a small kirpan under his clothing around his neck, he had also chosen to carry the much larger knife in December 2025
The statement said:
Henry Nowak’s murder was a horrific and senseless crime. Our thoughts remain with his family and loved ones.
As Sikh MPs, we believe it is important to be clear about the facts.
This case was not about Sikhism, and the weapon used was not a kirpan. As the court found, it was an offensive weapon.
No religious protection or justification applied, and the offender was rightly convicted and sentenced.
We also recognise the wider challenge this case highlights. Knife crime continues to devastate families and communities across our country.
It added:
This was not about Sikhism. It was about a man carrying an offensive weapon and committing a brutal murder.
Patrick Butler
Severely disabled people will be at heightened risk of abuse in care homes and hospitals after the biggest upheaval in disability law in a generation overturned “vital” legal safeguards, campaigners have warned.
They said a supreme court judgment that potentially strips the right of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people to independent checks on the safety and appropriateness of their care “devalues the dignity of disabled people”.
The landmark ruling means many adults who lack mental capacity, including autistic people with high support needs, severe learning disabilities, serious mental illness and advanced dementia, will lose access to deprivation of liberty safeguards (Dols).
The supreme court judgment, issued on Tuesday, overturned an existing legal framework for ensuring people in care homes and hospitals who lack capacity to consent to necessary treatment, medication or restraint receive safe care that is in their best interests.
The UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Northern Ireland executive had challenged the safeguarding framework, introduced in 2014 and known as the Cheshire West judgment, on the grounds that it was wrong in law, no longer needed, and had created an expensive, intrusive and unnecessary care bureaucracy.
Sundus Abdi
A proposed travel card for northern England modelled on London’s Oyster system could save commuters up to £276 a year, data shows.
Users would tap in and out across different transport networks and fares would be automatically capped at the cheapest available rate.
Researchers estimate the scheme could generate up to £2.7bn for the economy over five years by making it easier for people to travel between towns and cities for work, training and leisure.
The proposal would link together transport systems across northern England including Greater Manchester’s Bee Network, West Yorkshire’s planned Weaver Network and South Yorkshire’s People’s Network, allowing passengers to move between regions without buying separate tickets.
The scheme is backed by the Good Growth Foundation thinktank and the Labour MP Luke Charters. Supporters argue that while city regions across the north of England have invested heavily in improving local transport, travelling between those networks can involve navigating different ticketing systems, fare structures and operators.
The US state department has intervened in the debate surrounding the murder of Henry Nowak in the UK with a thinly-veiled rebuke criticising “two-tier policing” in the country.
Here my colleague Jamie Grierson takes a look at the case and the controversy behind the US intervention:
Downing Street has responded to Kemi Badenoch’s suggestion that conflict over identity politics could lead to civil war, saying Britain is a “reasonable and tolerant” country.
In an interview for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, England’s Identity Crisis, before the violent scenes in Southampton over the case of murdered teenager Henry Nowak, the Conservative leader said: “This is not a racist country. But now we are seeing more and more hostility to people of every ethnicity, whether they’re English or not English, because people are bringing political conflict into an area where we didn’t have political conflict.”
She added that politicians should not use tensions “as a way to get some votes from one particular community”.
“Parties which do that, politicians who do that, they may get to benefit in the short term, but in the long term, that’s how you end up with civil war,” Badenoch said.
Responding to her comments, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “That’s not the Britain that we recognise.
“We are reasonable, tolerant people. When we have a terrible case like Henry’s, we react calmly, as his family have done.
“The disgraceful scenes that we saw in Southampton on Tuesday night do not represent the majority of people who want to see unity and progress, and a violent minority with a mob mentality will not change that.”
Meanwhile, a debate on the impact of AI on human relationships and society is taking place in the House of Lords.
Opening the debate, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, asked: “Does AI make human life more human?”
She continued:
The question matters for those designing, developing and building the technology as they think about what ideologies and belief systems should underpin the models, as there is no such thing as value neutral technology.
It matters for governments, for policymakers, as they determine what should and should not be permitted and regulated.
And it matters for those using the technology. Many feel that AI is affecting them hugely without having any say in the matter. Others feel that the things which make us unique as humans are at risk of being eroded, devalued and replaced by AI.
As people turn to chatbots rather than other human beings for comfort, for wisdom, in moments of loneliness, loss, anxiety or pain, how should we adopt AI and what is the right place for it in our relationships, our families and our societies?
She warned of reports showing evidence of AI “facilitating violence against women and girls” and allowing child sexual abuse “with few safeguards”.
She added: “These harms are not simply the result of user misuse. AI platform design choices, policies and governance failures are encouraging and enabling them, and existing regulation is wholly inadequate to prevent them.”
Downing Street rejects US suggestion of ‘two-tiered policing’
Downing Street has rejected the US state department’s suggestion of “two-tiered policing” in the UK, while insisting Britain’s relationship with the US remains “incredibly strong”.
In a statement, the prime minister’s spokesperson referred to comments made by David Lammy this morning during a media round (see post at 09:19). The spokesperson said: “We do reject any suggestion of two-tier policing in the United Kingdom.
“The deputy prime minister [David Lammy] said mistakes can be made in any public service, it is right there is now an investigation going on.”
When asked how Keir Starmer would characterise the UK-US special relationship, the spokesperson said: “As ever, it is incredibly strong.
“We work with them on a number of fronts right across out systems and this remains.”
Ministers are “in regular touch” with their US counterparts, they added.
In todays’ episode of Today in Focus, Hugh Muir and Joe Mulhall explain the far-right conspiracy theory of “two-tier policing” that can be heard everywhere from pubs to parliament and riots to talk radio.
It has been parroted in parliament by Nigel Farage, on social media by Elon Musk, and on the ground by far-right figures such as Tommy Robinson, as violent anti-police protests erupted in Southampton.
It has come after the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was stabbed by Vickrum Digwa and then arrested as he lay dying. Terrible mistakes were made by the police who ignored his pleas for help.
To his father, Nowak’s death is a warning about the dangers of knife crime. Yet since Digwa’s conviction, it has been shaped into something very different: proof – because Nowak was white, and his assailant Asian – that white people are treated unfairly and discriminated against by the police.
The government has now rushed to push back, with Keir Starmer meeting Nowak’s family. But is it already too late to dispel the two-tier policing myth?
Joe tells Annie Kelly: “It feels a little bit like the genie’s out the bottle, it’s hard to turn people’s minds back around.”
And Hugh explains how a backlash to address the evidence-based discrimination against black and minority communities has festered.
You can listen to the episode here:
UK in the “most dangerous period” in decades, says military chief
Earlier, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, the UK’s chief of the defence staff, warned now is the “most dangerous period” in decades for Britain and the country needs to prepare for potential “longer conflicts”.
Knighton said Russia was “probing, challenging, testing our defences” including through “cyber-attacks or trying to smuggle technology, and reckless sabotage and assassination attempts”.
“This is the most dangerous time I have known in my working life,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“And it is important that society and all of us recognise and understand that, and that may mean that we need to make different choices and different priorities.”
