Last Updated on 8 June 2026 by Willem Moore
Reform — On 2 June, Nigel Farage stoked racial tensions in the UK by encouraging “pure, cold rage” from his followers. He made his speech in response to the sentencing of Henry Nowak’s murderer. And he said what he said despite Nowak’s family requesting the case not be used to sow division.
Reform — Unbelievable
Henry Nowak was a young white man who was stabbed to death by a young Sikh man. The case attracted attention because footage of the incident showed police officers had handcuffed Nowak despite the man explaining he’d been stabbed. Far-right politicians like Farage leaped on this to suggest anti-white bias within the UK police forces. As we’ve reported, however, the officers’ behaviour is in line with the many recorded instances of police incompetence — one which the right has been happy to ignore until now.
The right is also ignoring the many decades of documented racism such as that reported in the 2023 Casey Review. They want people to believe the Nowak case invalidates all the evidence demonstrating that the police are structurally incompetent and institutionally racist. And they want people to believe that because they capitalise on driving division.
Speaking to Zia Yusuf in the above clip, Laura Kuenssberg asked:
My question to you is, what was more important to you as a party – making that political argument or respecting the wishes of a grieving family?
And I would say we’ve talked to the family’s representatives this weekend, and they have said they would like to reiterate that they did not want this to cause division in the last few days.
So what was more important to you as a party, making this political argument, as Nigel Farage did, within 24 hours, recording what he called an ’emergency address’ – making a very political point on a very sensitive issue where he said ‘we’re living in a two-tier culture’ in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.
So I’ll ask you the same question again What was more important to you respecting the family’s wishes or making a political argument?
Showing his disdain for Nowak’s family and their wishes, Yusuf answered:
Respecting the family’s wishes, which is what we’ve done
Grim stuff
In the aftermath of Farage’s speech, Nowak’s family met with Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch. They did not meet with Nigel Farage. And we’d say the family will be increasingly unlikely to do so, given the way Reform is aggressively disrespecting their wishes.
Featured image via BBC
By Willem Moore
