David Lammy has told JD Vance he was wrong to link Henry Nowak’s murder to immigration and warned him the intervention on social media was “not helpful”.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he challenged the US vice-president in a “robust” phone call on Saturday after Mr Vance appeared to blame the killing on a “mass invasion” of people into Europe.
The 18-year-old student was handcuffed by police who ignored his pleas that he had been stabbed as he lay dying after his British-born killer, Vickrum Digwa, claimed to have been the victim of a racist attack.
Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy, who shares an unlikely friendship with Mr Vance despite their different political backgrounds, said the two had disagreed about the details surrounding the murder.
Mr Lammy, who is also Justice Secretary, told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I spoke to the vice-president yesterday and I wanted to emphasise a number of things.
“The first is that our democratic process is working well. This young man has been convicted. There is an investigation into the police by the independent police complaints authority.
“There is an investigation into Hampshire Police by the inspectorate. The AG (Attorney General) is looking at the sentencing in relation to this. The national police chiefs are looking at the guidance in relation to this.”
He added: “The second thing was I disagree with him – this has got nothing to do with mass migration.
“This young man (Digwa) was a Brit. Let’s be… clear about that, and I said, ‘Look, Mr vice-president, you’re wrong about this’, and it’s also the case that actually murder is coming down in the United Kingdom.
“So, we had an agreeable conversation, but we disagree.”
In the latest intervention by the Trump administration over the murder, Mr Vance had said on Friday: “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.
“His murder is as tragic as it is enraging.
“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.”
The vice-president said the response to Mr Nowak’s death should be “righteous anger”, in a post on X that came after violent unrest in Southampton on Tuesday, near the spot where the teenager was killed.
Asked whether he had given Mr Vance a ticking-off, Mr Lammy said: “We had an agreeable conversation because we have got a relationship, but I wanted to make him clear that I disagree with some of the facts that he was asserting and to present the facts to him.”
He added: “I also urged him that it’s not helpful to tweet in this way, partly because of what the Nowak family have asked for, and reminded him about their desire not to make this an issue of division and hatred, but to make this an issue of common sense.”
Asked whether he thought the vice-president had been racist, the Deputy Prime Minister told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I reminded him that the family have called for calm, they don’t want division… and, two, I reminded him also of the online space and how toxic that can become. So, we had a robust conversation, a respectful conversation.
“We remain colleagues and friends, we’re able to do that, and he has strongly-held views.”
Mr Vance’s intervention came after the US State Department linked “two-tier policing” to Mr Nowak’s death, which Downing Street has firmly rejected.
Sir Keir’s deputy warned the teenager’s family was now having to live in the “full light” of global attention on the killing.
“Seeing that footage of Henry Nowak at the end of his life was deeply, deeply traumatic,” Mr Lammy said.
“I thought of my own sons around the same age. It brought back memories of George Floyd, of Stephen Lawrence.
“It was so painful, so harrowing, so horrendous, and my heart goes out to that family for the grace and dignity with which they are now having to conduct their lives in the full light, basically of not just UK attention but global attention on this desperate, desperate tragedy.”
Digwa was given a life sentence with a minimum of 21 years in prison for stabbing Mr Nowak with a ceremonial knife with a 21cm blade, which he carried as part of his Sikh religion.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating Hampshire Police’s response in Mr Nowak’s case.
Attorney General Lord Hermer is also considering whether to refer the killer’s sentencing to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient scheme, Mr Lammy confirmed.
