US Vice President JD Vance on Friday weighed in on a controversy in Britain surrounding the murder of a student, attributing his death to what he described as a civilizational decline and the failure to stop the “mass invasion of migrants”.
In a post on X on Friday, Vance referred to the killing of Henry Nowak, who was fatally stabbed in Southampton in December last year by Indian-origin Vickrum Digwa. The case has attracted considerable attention in recent days, particularly among anti-immigration activists and right-wing commentators.
“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,” Vance said on X.
“His murder is as tragic as it is enraging,” he said.
The US Vice President further argued that the circumstances of the case pointed to broader societal failures and called for what he described as “righteous anger” in response.
23-year-old Digwa was convicted of murder earlier this week and sentenced to life imprisonment with with a minimum term of 21 years. Investigators said that after the attack, he falsely claimed to police that he had been subjected to racial abuse and was, in fact, the victim of the incident.
Police officers initially treated the wounded Nowak as a suspect before determining that he had sustained a fatal stab wound and subsequently attempting to save his life.
Digwa carried out the attack using an eight-inch Sikh dagger. While some groups sought to frame the incident through the lens of race and immigration, both Nowak and Digwa were British citizens.
Vance nonetheless linked the killing to immigration, saying that Henry “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.”
“Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last,” he added.
His remarks prompted an immediate response from Downing Street, which accused external actors of inflaming tensions surrounding a highly sensitive case.
“We have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
The spokesperson pointed out that the victim’s family had called for restraint and unity after Henry’s death. According to the statement, the family did not want the killing “to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
“The Nowak family are grieving after Henry’s horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes,” the statement added. “Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country.”
Relations between the United States and the United Kingdom, long regarded as close allies, have publicly deteriorated since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran in February. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what he views as Britain’s insufficient support for the conflict.
