Sir Keir Starmer will meet the family of murdered student Henry Nowak in Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, Downing Street confirmed. The private meeting comes amid a political row over the teenager's treatment by police and after the Prime Minister accused Elon Musk of trying to 'whip up division' over the case.
Violent protests erupted near where the 18-year-old was fatally stabbed in Southampton last year, after his killer Vickrum Digwa claimed he had been the victim of a racial attack. Mr Nowak was handcuffed by police who ignored his pleas that he could not breathe as he lay dying. Digwa was given a life sentence with a minimum of 21 years for stabbing Mr Nowak with a ceremonial knife with a 21cm blade, which he carried as part of his Sikh religion.
Mr Musk has posted numerous times on X about the police response, offering to fund a private prosecution of Hampshire Constabulary. The Prime Minister told reporters in York: 'We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division – that is not who we are in Britain.'
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also stressed that Mr Nowak's family 'do not want anger to tear communities apart', after meeting his mother, father and stepmother on Thursday morning. She said the family agreed that 'we need to bring common sense back' to how equality is treated under the law, and called for an examination of religious practices that permit carrying dangerous weapons in public.
Mrs Badenoch later hit out at Nigel Farage for 'whipping people up', telling broadcasters: 'It is politicians’ jobs to fix things, not to whip people up.' Asked if she would also condemn Mr Musk, she replied: 'I don’t know what Elon Musk is doing. But Elon Musk does not live in this country. I am the leader of the Opposition for this country, not America.'
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said it was 'completely right' that the Prime Minister had stood up to Mr Musk, adding that the tech tycoon had 'become extreme in his personal views and the willingness he has to interact with democracies'.
