Downing Street has issued a firm rebuttal to JD Vance after the US vice-president used the murder of 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak to make a point about migration, because nothing says 'diplomatic tact' like blaming a stabbing on 'mass invasion'.
Vance posted on X that Nowak's December killing by Vickrum Digwa was the result of 'mass invasion of migrants' and that the 'only response is righteous anger' - a take the Nowak family explicitly said they did not want used to 'create further division'. A Downing Street spokesman, channelling the collective eye-roll of British diplomacy, said: 'Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country.'
This follows a US State Department post on Thursday that diagnosed 'ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing' as 'glaring symptoms of civilizational decline' - which sounds less like diplomacy and more like a bad Yelp review for the entire Western world.
The controversy began earlier this week when Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of 'trying to whip up division' over the murder. Musk, never one to miss a chance to weigh in, posted on X: 'Send the video to everyone you know showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.'
Violent protests erupted in Southampton on Tuesday after bodycam footage showed police handcuffing Nowak as he lay dying - after Digwa falsely claimed to be the victim of a racist attack. Eleven officers and one police dog were injured by missiles hurled at police; two people were arrested. Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years for using a 21cm (8in) blade he said he carried as part of his Sikh faith to kill Nowak on 3 December.
The Conservatives and Reform UK have criticised the case, citing 'two-tier policing' - because apparently everyone gets a policy take now, even the parties that can't agree on what day it is. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey urged resisting 'attempts like this to politicise Henry Nowak's death and divide our country - whether they come from MAGA politicians like Vance or their cronies here in the UK.'