European far-right figures exploit UK murder of Henry Nowak for anti-immigration rhetoric
Polish, French, Spanish and Japanese far-right figures have seized on the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton to push anti-immigration narratives, despite pleas from his family to avoid political exploitation. Police footage of Nowak's final moments, in which he was handcuffed while dying from stab wounds, has been widely shared. The killer, Vickrum Digwa, was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years on Monday.
Polish, French, Spanish and Japanese far-right figures have seized on the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton to push anti-immigration narratives, despite pleas from his family to avoid political exploitation. Police footage showing Nowak handcuffed as he lay dying from stab wounds has been widely shared. The killer, Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years on Monday for Nowak's murder last December.
Marta Czech, a member of the far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown, called for a "defence of Poles in our country and abroad" at an activists' meeting last week in Hammersmith, west London. Nowak's father is understood to be of Polish descent. Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik, a Polish MEP in Viktor Orbán's grouping, described Digwa, a British citizen, as "an Indian" and blamed "mass immigration", writing on Facebook: "This story symbolises Britain's descent into the depths of the earth … How brainwashed do you have to be with leftist propaganda and political correctness to react this way?"
Éric Zemmour, the far-right French politician, said Nowak's "immigrant perpetrator" was being protected by the "religion of anti-racism". He wrote on X: "This horrific murder is a metaphor for what the West is experiencing: the native is treated as a suspect, while the immigrant perpetrator is shielded by the religion of anti-racism, which paralyses government officials and police officers." Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain's Vox party, wrote that "the British people are burning with rage" over Nowak's death. A hard-right Japanese news aggregator, Hoshu-Sokuhou, called the attack "a concrete example of the failure of multiculturalism".
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, suggested the public react with "pure, cold rage" to police actions, repeating his claim of "two-tier policing" during prime minister's questions on Wednesday. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there was "no justification for more violence and disorder", appearing to criticise Farage's comments. Nowak's family asked people not to exploit the killing for political gain and to focus on cutting knife crime.
Digwa stabbed Nowak five times and lied to police that he had been racially abused. The attorney general's office said it had received "multiple requests" to review Digwa's sentence under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. Separately, former police officer Christi Hill, who served as a police constable for 12 years, was falsely accused online of involvement in the murder and forced to flee to a safe space, criticising social media and AI platforms including Elon Musk's Grok for spreading the false claim.