Henry Nowak murder bodycam footage ‘absolutely harrowing’, says minister – live updates – UK Times

Nigel Farage said he had asked the Attorney General to review the life sentence with a minimum of 21 years given to killer Vickrum Digwa for being unduly lenient.

The Reform UK leader said in an address on Tuesday morning: “This is wrong. All the values and standards of living in a free country where everybody is judged equally before the law have been trashed and thrown away.”

Nigel Farage has just delivered an address in which he criticised the police response to the murder of Henry Nowak.

Nowak, 18, was handcuffed by police while he lay dying after the man who stabbed him told police he had racially abused him.

Mr Farage accused the police of treating an accusation of a racial slurs more seriously than an act of murder.

Referring to the body cam footage, Mr Farage said: “What does he say? I can’t breathe. Familiar words.”

The same words were said by George Floyd, whose death sparked the Black Lives Matter movement after he was killed by police in the US.

“Remember the reaction to that, and the way the police behaved within a few days. Keir Starmer was taking the knee. Black Lives Matter exploded all over the country,” Mr Farage said.

Accusing politicians of being “silent” on Mr Nowak’s death, Mr Farage added: “Proof if ever there was any, that 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.”

A government minister has said the “embarrassing” tranche of messages between Peter Mandelson and Pat McFadden is proof the government is being “open and transparent”.

Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds sought to defend the work and pensions minister after a series of his messages with the former Labour peer revealed harsh criticism of the prime minister and Labour MPs.

Mr Thomas-Symonds insisted Mr McFadden has “always been very consistent” on welfare and added the messages are “an indication of the government’s determination to comply with this humble address”.

“You have got what are – frankly, not just here, but more generally – messages that are embarrassing,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“They’re things that people said perhaps out of frustration, however it may be privately, that they never expected to be made public.

“But the reason they are public is because the government is being open and transparent.”

A government minister has said he had his phone stolen last year, meaning some WhatsApp’s between himself and Peter Mandelson were lost.

Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said his personal phone was stolen on October 15 2025, as he was walking home from a dinner on Marsham Street.

He said three people on mopeds swiped his phone, which he reported to the Metropolitan Police.

He told Sky News that he told the humble address team that messages would have included Mandelson and himself congratulating each other on respective appointments, and the former Labour peer campaigning to be Chancellor of Oxford University.

The second tranche of the Mandelson files dropped on Monday afternoon.

Our journalists have combed through hundreds of pages of documents, emails, and WhatsApp messages. Here is what we know:

The documents show that Lord Peter Mandelson was told it was only necessary to provide information on his current friendships with foreign nationals during his vetting process.​

He also told David Lammy a month before his appointment that the government would “never regret” making him ambassador.

The ex-Labour peer “declined to comply” with a request to hand over his WhatsApp messages and other information on his personal phone to the government.​

However, messages he exchanged with ministers reveal several criticisms he had of the government and its leader Keir Starmer. ​

Some of those include Mandelson warning Starmer’s Downing Street operation was “beleaguered and bereft”, and, in separate messages, speculating that the prime minister may not survive a welfare rebellion.​

The then-ambassador to the US also said Pat McFadden was “not a power house”, admitted he was “very worried” about the Chagos deal, and accused Wes Streeting of having “early mid life crisis”.​

Mandelson also told ministers to behave in a more “Trumpian risk taking and dare devil way” in the aftermath of Labour’s loss to Reform in the Runcorn by-election.​

Cabinet ministers have also been dragged into the spotlight, with messaging revealing McFadden told Mandelson that Labour MPs only ask “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”.​

Mandelson discussed a story written by The Independent‘s Political Editor David Maddox with the then comms chief Matthew Doyle.

The pair discussed Maddox’s reporting on WhatsApp after he published a story saying that Donald Trump is threatening to reject Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador unless the British government accepts serious restrictions on his activities.

Pat McFadden should not be sacked for his comments about Keir Starmer, Dame Emily Thornberry has said.

The senior Labour MP said the work and pensions minister was “having a b**** privately”.

She told Sky News: “Whether it’s OK or not, it is the sort of thing human beings do. They complain about their bosses, they complain about decisions being made, they complain about when they don’t feel they’re being listened to.”

Labour MP John McDonnell told Times Radio that Mr McFadden should consider resigning from the cabinet because he has been “disloyal” to the prime minister.

Several damaging messages between Mr McFadden and Lord Mandelson were released, some of which had disparaged the prime minister.

The prime minister is facing fresh humiliation after the latest tranche of Mandelson files was published on Monday, revealing both in-fighting among ministers and profound criticism of Sir Keir Starmer’s administration.

The publication of more than 1,000 pages of messages relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US reveals his damning opinion of the government, with the disgraced peer saying that the prime minister “lacks verve” and warning that his Downing Street operation is “beleaguered and bereft”.

The release lays bare the extent to which government is conducted by WhatsApp and includes thousands of previously private messages exchanged between figures at the heart of government, revealing Lord Mandelson repeatedly offered unsolicited advice to ministers, derided colleagues and criticised the actions of the government.

Lord Mandelson, however, apparently “declined to comply” with a request to hand over his personal phone and allow the government to publish WhatsApp messages and other information related to his appointment, the documents showed.

Meanwhile, in a statement to the Commons, chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones confirmed that questions put to Lord Mandelson during the vetting process were being withheld at the request of the Metropolitan Police, among a huge amount of redactions.

The shadow cabinet minister has accused the government of a lack of transparency over documents not included in the release of the Mandelson files.​

Alex Burghart told the Commons the government was denying MPs the ability to scrutinise the documents, saying “very few” were able to see the files before the debate.

He added: “Although we have a huge number of documents, it is clear that very many are missing.

“Some have been withheld, some have been lost, and it’s clear that some have probably been destroyed. ​

“Because of the approach that the government is taking, however, it is impossible for members to know which documents fall into which category. ​

“We know there is no good legal basis for the government to disclose to this House which documents are being withheld. The government should tell us.​

“Again, this is obfuscation; this is an unnecessary attempt to defer scrutiny or deny it.”