US Vice President JD Vance has criticised the UK’s handling of the murder of white teenager Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa, linking the case to what he described as a broader “civilisational decline” in the West.
Downing Street, however, sharply rebuked the remarks, and said people are “trying to interfere in our democracy” and warning against attempts to exploit the tragedy for political purposes.
“Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit,” Vance’s post on X reads.
“He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the west and the people who love it.”
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said the government would not support efforts by individuals “seeking to stir up division” following the teenager’s death. The remarks came after Vance suggested that migration policies were partly responsible for the circumstances that led to the killing