Sir Keir Starmer has said he “felt sick” watching footage of police handcuffing student Henry Nowak as he lay dying, and that there are “serious questions” to answer about the case.
The Prime Minister said there needs to be an examination into how “accusations of racism” informed the police’s decision-making in the case.
The killer of finance student Mr Nowak, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, told police attending the scene of the stabbing in Southampton on December 3 2025 that he had been the victim of a racist attack.
In body-worn camera footage from the incident, Mr Nowak can be heard repeatedly saying: “I’ve been stabbed,” to which an officer replies: “Don’t think you have, mate.”
The Prime Minister said the footage was “harrowing”, adding: “I have to say, as a father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick watching it.”
The police watchdog is expected to report on the case within the next three months.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said investigators are examining a large amount of body-worn video as well as material presented during Digwa’s trial.
Hampshire Police confirmed that one of the officers involved in the case has resigned, while the other three are still serving. All of them are being treated as witnesses.
Sir Keir said: “It is absolutely right that the IOPC are looking at this.
“There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision-making in this case.”
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 prosecutors said was a kirpan, which he carried as part of his Sikh religion.
He had previously been investigated by police in 2023 on suspicion of stealing ceremonial blades from a Sikh temple in Southampton but no further action was taken.
Mr Nowak’s father Mark Nowak, speaking after Digwa was sentenced on Monday, said: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
But Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said people should respond with “pure cold rage” to Mr Nowak’s treatment, which he said was evidence of a “two-tier culture”.
Mr Nowak was “actually treated in a way that meant an accusation of a racial slur was treated more seriously than an act of murder”, Mr Farage said.
The Prime Minister said Mr Nowak’s family “don’t want this whipped up” and “Nigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told ITV’s Good Morning Britain there should be “no two-tier policing, no believing that racism only happens to ethnic minorities”.
She added: “It happens to everyone. And the police need to be trained like that, not with the terrible anti-racism training, which is just reverse racism and reverse discrimination.”
In the Commons, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned “misinformation and inflammatory commentary is making a dreadful situation even worse”.
A source close to Ms Mahmood said society could not shy away from historical and legitimate concerns about racism within police forces across the country, and said the Race Action Plan published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council played a vital role in addressing this.
But the source acknowledged that wording in a document accompanying the action plan was “clumsy” and would be updated to ensure there was no ambiguity that everyone was equal in the eyes of the law.
In other developments:
– Ms Mahmood said a police officer wrongly identified as being involved in the case has received death threats and been forced to relocate to protect himself and his family.
– Attorney General Lord Hermer has received “multiple requests” to consider whether Digwa’s sentence should be reviewed as unduly lenient.
– Digwa, his father Moga Singh, 52, and brother Gurpreet Digwa, 27, appeared at Southampton Magistrates’ Court to face multiple weapons charges.
– A statement issued by the killer’s family apologised “for the pain and suffering the Nowak family has had to endure”, and for bringing the Sikh community into “disrepute”.
