Nigel Farage has launched a blistering attack on the UK's justice system, describing prisons as 'paper mache' and calling for a crackdown on what he termed 'anti-white prejudice'. The Reform UK leader made the comments in an emergency address following the release of police footage showing the final moments of Henry Nowak, a student fatally stabbed in a racially charged attack.
In the video, Nowak is seen handcuffed and pleading for help after being stabbed by Vickrum Singh Digwa, a Sikh man who claimed the student had racially abused him. Farage paid tribute to the Nowak family's dignity before expressing 'pure cold rage' and demanding that 'white lives matter just as much as black lives'. He urged the attorney general to review Digwa's sentence.
Farage's intervention comes as he faces pressure from harder-right rivals, including former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, who pledged that Digwa would have been 'put to death' under his Restore Britain party. Elon Musk has also weighed in, offering to fund a wrongful death lawsuit against the police officers involved.
The case has been seized upon by far-right activists, who have turned images of Nowak's handcuffed hand into memes, with one using AI to show a rose wilting in a white hand. Some commentators have linked the case to the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in the US, blaming 'woke' policies for allowing violent offenders to roam free.
Farage's address marks a shift from his recent reticence to hold press conferences, following revelations about a £5m gift from a crypto billionaire and his disputed claim of being hacked by Russians. However, critics warn that his rhetoric risks inflaming tensions in an already polarised political climate.
