𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

David Lammy has told US Vice President JD Vance “you’re wrong” following explosive comments on Henry Nowak’s murder.

The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister spoke to his US counterpart on Saturday after the latter partly blamed the 18-year-old’s death on the “mass invasion of migrants” and said there should be “righteous anger” at the case.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he warned the vice-president that his post was “not helpful”.

He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I spoke to the vice-president yesterday and I wanted to emphasise a number of things.

“The first is that our democratic process is working well. This young man has been convicted. There is an investigation into the police by the independent police complaints authority.

“There is an investigation into Hampshire Police by the inspectorate. The Attorney General is looking at the sentencing in relation to this.

“The national police chiefs are looking at the guidance in relation to this. The second thing was I disagree with him.

“This has got nothing to do with mass migration. This young man was a Brit. Let’s be … clear about that, and I said, ‘Look, Mr vice-president, you’re wrong about this’, and it’s also the case that actually murder is coming down in the United Kingdom.

“So, we had an agreeable conversation, but we disagree.”

Asked whether he had given Mr Vance a ticking-off, he said: “We had an agreeable conversation because we have got a relationship, but I wanted to make him clear that I disagree with some of the facts that he was asserting and to present the facts to him.”

Mr Lammy said Mr Vance “has a longstanding concern about what he calls Western values, he actually was at pains to say, both in the United States and in here in Europe, which he believes are under attack”.

He added that they “disagree on that” and that they ended the conversation “very amicably, talked about when we’re next going to see each other.”

Mr Lammy added: “I also urged him that it’s not helpful to tweet in this way, partly because of what the Nowak family have asked for and reminded him about their desire not to make this an issue of division and hatred, but to make this an issue of common sense.”

Mr Nowak was handcuffed by police who ignored his pleas that he had been stabbed as he lay dying after his killer, Vickrum Digwa, falsely claimed to have been the victim of a racist attack.

In the latest intervention by the Trump administration over the murder, Mr Vance said: “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.

“His murder is as tragic as it is enraging.

“He 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.”

Mr Vance said the response to Mr Nowak’s death should be “righteous anger”.

Mr Vance’s intervention came after the US State Department linked “two-tier policing” to Mr Nowak’s death.

It followed violent unrest in Southampton on Tuesday night, near the spot where Mr Nowak was killed.

Downing Street hit out at “people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets” over Mr Nowak’s case.

A No 10 spokesperson said: “In recent days we have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.

“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.

“Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country.”