A fierce diplomatic and political row has erupted after United States Vice President JD Vance injected inflammatory rhetoric into the highly charged case of a slain British teenager, drawing sharp rebuke from Downing Street for alleged interference in UK domestic affairs.
Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak was fatally stabbed in December 2024 by Vickrum Digwa as he walked home alone following a night out with friends. Digwa, who claimed the 21cm blade used in the killing was carried for his Sikh faith, was later sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years. Public outrage intensified this week after the release of police body camera footage, which showed officers handcuffing Nowak while he lay dying, after Digwa falsely told police he was the victim of a racist attack.
The release of the footage sparked violent unrest in the southern English city of Southampton on Tuesday. Protesters threw projectiles at police officers, leaving 11 officers and one police dog injured, and resulted in two arrests. The case has already fueled domestic political tension in the UK, with opposition parties including the Conservatives and right-wing Reform UK accusing the government of enabling so-called “two-tier policing”, a claim that different communities are treated unequally by law enforcement.
This domestic dispute escalated to an international level when Vance took to social media platform X to weigh in on the killing. In his post, Vance framed Nowak’s death as a direct consequence of what he called a “mass invasion of migrants”, arguing that the teenager would still be alive if European political leaders had “stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred”. He added that the killing was “tragic as it is enraging” and that the “only response is righteous anger”. Vance’s comments echoed a recent statement from the US State Department, which claimed that “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline” that must be rejected across Western nations.
Vance’s intervention is not the first high-profile foreign comment on the case. Earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer already condemned tech billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, for “trying to whip up division” after Musk shared a misleading post calling on followers to circulate the bodycam footage widely, claiming police had “kowtowed” to Digwa.
In an official statement responding to Vance’s remarks, a Downing Street spokesperson pushed back hard against the foreign interference. The spokesperson noted that the Nowak family themselves have explicitly stated they do not want Henry’s death to be exploited to fuel further division in the UK. “Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country,” the spokesperson said, adding that Downing Street rejected “people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division”.
Ed Davey, leader of the UK’s centrist Liberal Democrats, echoed the condemnation, arguing that all political leaders must reject efforts to politicize Nowak’s death for partisan gain regardless of where they come from. “We all need to resist attempts like this to politicize Henry Nowak’s death and divide our country – whether they come from MAGA politicians like Vance or their cronies here in the UK,” Davey said.