In the wake of a tragic murder, the left must organise against renewed far-right riots and stand against racism, writes Zahid Rahman

On Monday, a court sentenced Vikrum Digwa to life imprisonment with a minimum of twenty-one years for the December murder of 18-year old Henry Nowak. Digwa stabbed Nowak after a dispute, only for the police to ignore Nowak begging for help. While handcuffed, Nowak repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe” and “I’ve been stabbed” with one replying “Don’t think you have, mate.” Shortly afterwards the teenager died in police custody.

This case has become a political football for the far-right, despite pleas from the victim’s family not to politicise their grief. On Tuesday morning, Farage held an online “address to the nation” where he called for “pure, cold rage.” Suella Braverman weighed in with a tweet saying “White lives matter.” The rhetoric coming out from the right claims that police officers operate under a two-tier system in which ethnic minorities are privileged. Such discourse has seeped its way into reporting by the BBC and other mainstream media outlets, where blame for the Nowak case has been attributed to post-MacPherson Inquiry policing guidelines on racial minorities. The leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, claimed that police forces have given themselves to “overcorrection” after BLM-era reforms. 

However, this is far from the truth. There isn’t any policy guideline requiring police officers to apply the law differently according to people’s ethnicities. Moreover, although police officers have to officially adhere to equality guidelines, it has been ethnic minorities that have found themselves victims of police racism on a general level. People of ethnic minority backgrounds are more far likely to be stop-and-searched in England and Wales. The Metropolitan police has been found to be institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic as recently as 2023. In that same year, senior figures in Police Scotland and the Avon and Somerset Constabulary even admitted their forces were institutionally racist. 

The attempt to generalise and demonstrate a level of police bias against white people through the Nowak case is a fallacy fuelled by the far-right conspiracy theory of “two-tier policing.” Rather the incident shows an extreme lack of care and understanding towards the victim, and is truly a case of police brutality rather than some kind of anti-white bias.

This has not stopped politicians, including Keir Starmer and  Shabana Mahmood to the Conservatives and Reform suggesting or claiming police failure in this case based on post-BLM efforts to country institutionally racist policing. Although Farage is keen to weaponise this case, he is strongly motivated to demonstrate his far-right credentials due the growing political insurgency Reform faces further right. Namely this threat comes from Restore UK, led by Rupert Lowe, whose support includes among others neo-fascists.

In polls ahead of the Makerfield by-election, Reforms trails in second place behind Andy Burnham, with Restore UK in third. For fear of having far-right votes split, not just in Makerfield but in any future election, Farage is trying to win back support by openly fanning racism. 

On Tuesday evening, up to 2,000 fascists gathered in front of the Southampton Central Police Station. The demonstrators rioted, with some photographed giving Nazi salutes. Amongst their numbers included figures like Tommy Robinson, Lawrence Fox and Nick Tenconi (who leads UKIP). The rise of popular anger does reflect rising disillusionment with the British political establishment. The far-right is attempting to channel this against ethnic minorities, and have seized on upon this latest issue to do so. The rise of racialised politics is a challenge the left must confront, including by standing with the Sikh community, who already face calls to restrict their religious freedoms along with other racist attacks. It is the role of the left to organise and confront the fascist threat. The successful Together demonstration on 28 March and the huge Nakba Day demonstration last month have shown this is possible.