British Justice Secretary David Lammy has rejected the U.S. State Department’s accusation of “two-tiered policing” in the U.K. amid a political row over the death of a student who was handcuffed by police after he had been stabbed.
“I don’t recognize this caricature of Britain having a two-tier criminal justice system,” Lammy said Friday, emphasizing his belief that “everybody has got to be equal before the law, that is a fundamental concept in our Democratic settlement.”
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed Lammy’s remarks and rejected the State Department’s suggestion.
The argument has also been staunchly refuted by Hampshire Police’s Chief Constable Alexis Boon.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday night waded into the political discourse over the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was killed in an attack in Southampton in December 2025.
His killer, Vickrum Digwa, 23, was sentenced on Monday to a minimum of 21 years in prison. Police bodycam footage released earlier this week shows officers continuing to put Nowak in handcuffs despite his pleas that he was struggling to breathe and was injured. Digwa, who is Sikh, had told police he was a victim of a racist attack, an allegation that was later proved false.
“Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West,” read the statement from the U.S. State Department.
“The United States sends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.”
The remark was reposted on social media by the U.S. Embassy in London.
In addition to Starmer and his ruling Labour Party pushing back against this assessment, the Liberal Democrats—the U.K.’s third largest political party—have called for U.S. ambassador Warren Stephens to be summoned.
“The Trump Administration should not be using the tragic murder of Henry Nowak as a political football,” said Calum Miller, the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson. “This is flagrant foreign interference that seeks to fan the flames of division.”
TIME has reached out to the U.S. ambassador’s office for comment.
Nigel Farage, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and leader of the hard-right Reform UK Party, criticised the policing system in parliament earlier this week.
He claimed the country was living under “two-tier policing” based on ethnicity, having earlier said that “the fear of being called racist was greater than dealing with Henry Nowak’s murder.”
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf has since called for the abolishment of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) from police forces.
Starmer acknowledged there are “serious questions to answer, including how accusations of racism informed police thinking,” but insisted “exploiting this tragedy to create grievance and division would be wrong in any circumstances.”
Members of the Sikh community have expressed concern over the rhetoric being used by some hard-right figures.
Jas Singh, an adviser to the Sikh Federation (UK), tells TIME there is “a collective feeling of grief, worry, genuine concern and fear.”
The fallout over the police bodycam footage has stoked divisions, with tensions spilling out onto the street Tuesday night as violent protests erupted in Southampton.
The online discourse surrounding the tragic case has also become increasingly charged, with high-profile figures such as Elon Musk criticising the actions of the police.
The tech billionaire and X owner on Tuesday told his 240 million-strong following on X to send the bodycam footage “to everyone you know, showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.”
He also claimed “the West has created an utterly evil state religion” in which an accusation of racism “is the gravest offense that can be committed.”
Starmer has accused Musk of “interfering in our politics” and “trying to whip up division.”
“That is not who we are in Britain,” he said. “In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people. When we have a terrible case, like Henry’s case, we react calmly, as his family have done.”
Lammy, meanwhile, argued Musk “should stay out of this complex, but painful situation.”
