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Kemi Badenoch insisted the treatment of Henry Nowak must be a ‘wake up call’ today – as forces were urged to scrap ‘two-tier’ policing rules.
The Tory leader said ‘every life matters’ as she demanded change during a tense PMQs session with Keir Starmer.
A public outcry has been growing after the emergence of bodycam footage showing officers handcuffing the 18-year-old university student as he lay dying after his Sikh killer falsely claimed to be a victim of racism.
Vickrum Digwa, 23, stabbed the teenager six times before lying to officers that he had shouted racist abuse, punched him and knocked off his turban. Mr Nowak repeatedly told officers ‘I can’t breathe’ before his death.
Nigel Farage also intervened in the Commons this afternoon, saying ‘two-tier’ policing could not continue. He warned that rioting in Southampton ‘is in danger of getting worse’ unless the Government acts.
But Keir Starmer told MPs there was ‘no justification’ for the ‘disgraceful’ violence – and pointed the finger at Mr Farage for urging the public to display ‘cold rage’. The premier suggested the Reform leader only ‘pretended to respect’ the family of Mr Nowak, who have pleaded for people not to politicise the murder.
Sir Keir said he did not believe there was ‘two-tier policing’ in the UK.
The Conservatives and Reform UK are adamant that Mr Nowak’s treatment was influenced by police guidance around racial bias.
Under a so-called Anti-Racism Commitment published last year, policing leaders say that ‘racial equity’ should not mean ‘treating everyone the same or being colour blind’.
Instead they say their goal is to produce ‘equality of policing outcomes’ by ending the racial disparity in the ‘likelihood of people being criminalised’.
The commitment is part of a multi-million pound Police Race Action Plan launched in 2022 following the killing of George Floyd in America ‘to improve trust and confidence in policing among Black communities’ in the UK.
The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) has since vowed to review the guidance, which the policing minister today accepted was ‘wrong’.
Sarah Jones told Sky News it was important to be ‘mindful of the fact that there has been a history of racism in policing’ but she said of the commitment: ‘I think this document is wrong.’
But Parm Sandhu, director of the London Policing College and the first and only Sikh chief superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, rejected accusations of a two-tier approach and accused politicians of ‘politicising’ the tragedy.
‘Police officers do not go to work and think they are going to treat black or white people differently,’ she told BBC Radio 4. ‘They go to work and they deal with emergency situations where they have to make fast life or death decisions.
‘In this case they’ve made a tragic mistake. But they do not base those decisions on the skin colour of the individuals in front of them.’