David Lammy: ‘I said Mr Vice President, you’re wrong about this’
The news cycle this week has been dominated by the murder of 18 year-old student Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa. Digwa and his brother falsely told the police they had been racially abused, and bodycam footage shows police handcuffing Nowak despite him repeatedly saying he had been stabbed. The murder has caused widespread outrage, including violent protests in Southampton. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the incident is an example of ‘two-tier policing’ and called for ‘pure, cold rage’. In the US, Vice President JD Vance blamed Novak’s murder on the ‘mass invasion of migrants’. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy what he made of Vance’s comments. Lammy said he had spoken to Vance and told him he was ‘wrong about this’. Lammy argued that the ‘democratic process is working well’, as Digwa has been convicted for his crimes, and there is an independent investigation into the actions of the police. He also noted that Digwa is British and was born in the country. The deputy PM said he told Vance that ‘it’s not helpful to tweet in this way’, and reminded him that Nowak’s family had asked that his murder not be used to create further division.
How different are the reactions to the deaths of Henry Nowak and George Floyd?
Trevor Phillips pointed out that in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Keir Starmer had conveyed ‘the UK’s abhorrence’ of Donald Trump’s reaction to Floyd’s death, and asked why JD Vance deserved criticism for weighing in on Nowak’s murder. Lammy argued that those in opposition are ‘free… to reflect on anything’, but it is different for those in government. Lammy also referenced again the plea of Nowak’s family. Phillips noted that JD Vance had used the phrase ‘righteous anger’, which Lammy had also used in response to the death of Floyd, and asked why that was different to Nigel Farage’s use of the word ‘rage’. Lammy claimed that Farage’s words were irresponsible in the wake of the Southampton demonstrations.
David Lammy: ‘I don’t recognise two-tier policing’
On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked David Lammy if police guidance that calls for officers to not be ‘colour blind’ does lead to incidents of two-tier policing. Lammy said he does not recognise the phenomenon across the country. Kuenssberg asked if incidents ever occur where ‘good intentions’ result in ethnic minorities being treated more favourably than white people. Lammy said that it is always possible that ‘stereotypes [are] deployed’ unfavourably towards white people or ethic minorities, but that we should be ‘proud’ of the job the police do in general. Lammy claimed that we have ‘moved on’ from the period of institutional racism in the police force.
Zia Yusuf: The police are institutionally racist
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Reform’s Zia Yusuf claimed that police guidance results in institutional racism, with negative consequences for white people, and said he ‘couldn’t believe’ that David Lammy had suggested that ‘equality does not mean treating people the same’. Kuenssberg asked if current police training erases decades of evidence that ethnic minorities are treated more harshly by the police and justice system. Yusuf said new evidence does not ‘erase previous evidence’, but he claimed that examples of police racism towards ethnic minorities are not ‘in compliance with the police code of conduct’. He added that a Reform government would not allow anyone to carry deadly weapons as part of a religious practice.
Are the Tories now aligned with Suella Braverman on two-tier policing?
On GB News, Camilla Tominey interviewed Shadow Minister for Equalities Claire Coutinho. Tominey claimed that the Tories are now aligned with Suella Braverman on two-tier policing, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak for her comments on the subject. Coutinho said that Kemi Badenoch had also been arguing for a long time that ‘the police are not institutionally racist’, and the idea that people needed to be treated differently by the police based on race had to be scrapped. She acknowledged that Braverman and Badenoch had both received a lot of pushback by their own party at the time. Coutinho also criticised a Reform campaign which attempts to paint Badenoch as a supporter of Black Lives Matter, and argued that Henry Nowak’s death should result in a focus on rooting out ‘this [DEI] ideology’.
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