Policing could be driven back to the 1960s by false claims officers are biased against white people, the leader of Britain’s black officers has said.

Ch Insp Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, spoke out amid growing concerns that politicians such as Nigel Farage were stoking tensions around the murder of teenager Henry Nowak by making baseless and provocative claims.

Senior figures in policing were among those who pushed back against his assertion that the handcuffing of Nowak by officers in Southampton last December after he had been stabbed amounted to two-tier policing and a bias against white people.

They also denounced Farage for saying the response to the killing demanded “cold rage”.

Keir Starmer accused the Reform UK leader of ignoring the wishes of the dead teenager’s family and called the Reform leader’s actions “unforgivable”.

Nowak’s father Mark had condemned the “inhumane and degrading” treatment of his son by police.

But he added: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to help make our streets safer for everyone.”

Hampshire’s chief constable Alexis Boon, whose officers are under scrutiny over the way they dealt with the incident, on Wednesday apologised for the way Nowak had been arrested and handcuffed. He added: “I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through this.”

The killing of Nowak, an 18-year-old university student, has sparked a nationwide debate about policing.

The teenager was stabbed last December by Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been racially attacked by him.

In fact, Digwa had stabbed Nowak repeatedly, but officers arriving at the scene treated the student as a suspect. He was handcuffed and put under arrest, despite telling officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

The Guardian has learned that police chiefs have ordered the nationwide increase in intelligence gathering about potential violence believed to be linked to far-right protests, with 11 officers injured after clashes in Southampton on Tuesday.

George said bogus claims from politicians such as Farage and far-right activists that policing is biased against white people could set back efforts to end systemic, longstanding prejudice against black people.

He said: “There is a danger of policing going back to a time long before Stephen Lawrence’s murder, to the 1960s and 1970s, because of the attacks from the far right which have been growing over the past few years, and which are becoming more mainstream.”

In the House of Lords, Lady Lawrence, who fought police for justice after they failed her murdered son Stephen in 1993, said: “My condolences goes out to Henry Nowak’s family. I think what’s happened with him should never have happened. And the police should be at fault for what happened on that night,” she said.

Body cam footage of the student’s final minutes is accepted by police sources to be “traumatic”.

The incident is being investigated by policing watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Sir Andy Cooke, who stood down in April as chief inspector of constabulary, told the Guardian he found no evidence of anti-white bias during his time scrutinising all forces in England and Wales.

He said politicians such as Farage were trying to “exploit” the Nowak case “to boost their political fortunes” and worsen community tensions.

Cooke, who was appointed by the Conservatives and won praise from both main parties, said: “Throughout my five years at the inspectorate, I found no evidence at all to support any claim there was an anti-white bias in operational policing.

“At a time when there is disquiet in some communities, this is no time to play politics with community tensions, particularly off the back of such a distressing incident that caused so much pain to the family of Henry Nowak.

“This should be a period of time where politicians respect the family’s wishes and do not try to exploit such a tragic and painful situation to boost their political fortunes.”

His intervention came as Southampton recovered from violence after protests led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. That followed Farage’s calls for “rage” at how Nowak was treated by police.

He had been stabbed by Digwa after a dispute flared out of control, but officers were unaware how seriously he was injured, ignored his pleas he had been stabbed for about three minutes and handcuffed him.

One senior police source said police believed politicians were attempting “to stoke up tensions for political gain”, making clear they meant Farage and Robinson, as well as some Conservatives, and “they were reckless about whether their comments would lead to trouble on the streets”.

In the House of Commons both Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, warned against divisive rhetoric, with the prime minister condemning Farage exploiting the tragedy for political gain.

“This is a time for serious work, not rage,” Starmer said, a response to Farage’s call to respond to the case with “pure, cold rage”.

Farage used a question to claim the UK was “living under two-tier policing”, saying this had led to “the anger that you saw spilling out in Southampton last night”.

Starmer called the Reform UK leader’s comments “unforgivable” and said: “A grieving family have asked us not to respond in the way that the leader of Reform has responded … His response has been to appeal for rage – rage. That’s his response to a father who has lost his son and asked for that not to happen. Exploiting this tragedy to create grievance and division would be wrong in any circumstances, but to do it when the family are expressly saying please don’t is unforgivable. It shows exactly who he is.”

Government and police are discussing a review of police promises on tackling racial bias against black people, with ministers convinced some of the wording was clumsy and open to attack.

In the Portswood area of Southampton, where anti-police protesters clashed with police on Tuesday night, politicians and residents criticised the violence.

Satvir Khan, the MP for Southampton Test and the first woman Sikh to become a UK government minister, said she needed a security guard when she visited the area because she had received death threats.

Community leaders said there had been an increase in hate aimed at Sikh people and some were changing their routines to avoid being targeted and there were extra police patrols around Sikh buildings.

Meanwhile, a former police officer was forced to flee to a safe space after she was falsely accused online of being involved in the arrest of Nowak.

Christi Hill, who served as a police constable for 12 years, has criticised social media and AI platforms, including Elon Musk’s Grok, for spreading the false claim that she was one of the officers who arrested Nowak. She said she had left the police more than a year before the murder.

Boon, Hampshire’s most senior officer, rejected claims of anti-white bias and said: “I don’t accept the term of two-tier policing, I don’t recognise it.”

He said some of the criticism directed at Hampshire constabulary has been “unfair”, in an interview with broadcasters.

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, stripped nine navy officers including women and Black service members from a promotion list last month, according to a person familiar with the matter, resulting in an all-male, overwhelmingly white slate of 22 advancing as nominees to become one-star admirals.

Hegseth’s unusual intervention violated promotion rules designed to be merit-based and apolitical, the New York Times said on Tuesday, and extended the Trump administration’s push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the military.

The original promotion list included three women and two Black officers in addition to the two who remained, the newspaper said.

A navy source said that officials in the service had been “very confident” with those on the promotion list, including the officers whom Hegseth removed. He said Hegseth did not explain to the navy why he removed the officers from the list.

One government source familiar with matter said Hegseth has “his favorite MOS’s [military occupational specialities], and then gender and race. He went through the list and scrubbed a few names. It was felt loud and clear.”

The Pentagon disputed that Hegseth blocked promotions based on race or gender. “As we’ve said before, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. The department will never consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor in promotions,” said Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson. “Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, meritocracy reigns supreme at the war department.”

The move has direct parallels with Hegseth’s reported interposition in a similar army promotion list in March, in which he is said to have directed the army secretary, Dan Driscoll, to remove two women and two Black officers from a nomination slate to become one-star generals.

Hegseth has previously railed against diversity and so-called “woke” in the armed services.

“For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons – based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,” he told a keynote meeting of military commanders in Virginia in September. “The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies.”

Hegseth’s involvement in the promotions list is unusual, according to a former military official. “It’s supposed to an up-and-down vote from the defense secretary. He continuing to meddle on an individual basis,” he said. “He’s stripping autonomy from the service secretaries.”

One name still on the latest navy list published on 22 May is Capt Sean Barbabella, Donald Trump’s White House physician, who last week declared the almost 80-year-old president to be in “excellent health”, despite photographs showing him at times with swollen ankles, bruised hands and a blotchy neck.

Hegseth stepped in to overrule a board of navy admirals that had drawn up the list, the Times said, also removing four white officers. The outlet noted that the list as published, which must be confirmed by the US Senate, bears little relation to the makeup of the force the nominees will lead.

The report cites a 2024 government profile of the navy’s active-service composition, which revealed that more than 21% are women, and that almost 40% identify with racial minority groups.

The Guardian reported in March that Hegseth, who styles himself the “secretary of war”, acted soon after his confirmation as defense secretary last year to block promotions or redeploy senior military officers, 60% of them women or Black.

He reassigned V Adm Yvette Davids, the first woman to lead the US naval academy, and dismissed another navy vice-admiral, Shoshana Chatfield, as the US military representative to the Nato military committee.

Hegseth also dismissed Adm Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations.

Coast guard commandant Linda Fagan, who served for 37 years and was the longest serving active duty marine safety officer, was dismissed on 20 January 2025, the first day of Trump’s second term of office, four days before Hegseth’s narrow Senate confirmation.

Overall, the Times said, Hegseth has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers.

The actions extend the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the US military, which have included attempts to ban women from combat roles and blocking transgender troops from serving.

A federal appeals court in Washington DC on Monday delivered a setback to the anti-diversity push by ruling that the government acted illegally by moving to dismiss transgender service members. That case is expected to reach the supreme court.