Starmer says he ‘felt sick’ watching video of Henry Nowak’s arrest – UK politics live | Politics

Let me assure you, I’ve complied with the humble address. All the messages I hold have been passed over. I went through the same process as everybody else, and many people, not just in politics, use disappearing messages.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Keir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, for saying that people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “with pure cold rage”.

In a pooled TV interview, Starmer said that was “the wrong reaction”. He went on:

I start my answer to your question through the eyes of the family. They have said they do not want this whipped up. They have been through the most extraordinary, awful experience. They don’t want this whipped up, and Nigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division.

He would be wrong in any circumstances, but when Henry’s family are saying, ‘Please don’t do that, it’s our son,’ then really, as politicians, as human beings, we should start where they start, and that’s where I start.

Asked if he agreed with Kemi Badenoch that there should be a Macpherson-style inquiry into whether the anti-racist culture in the police should go too far, Starmer said that he was not ruling that out. But he said the Independent Office of Police Conduct should be allowed to finish their inquiry into how officers handled this case first.

Starmer also said he felt “sick” watching the video footage of Nowak being handcuffed as he lay dying.

I have seen the body cam footage, it’s harrowing, and I have to say, as a father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick watching it.

It is absolutely right that the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) are looking at this.

There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision making in this case.

But my thoughts, I am sure the thoughts of everybody in this country, are with Henry’s family.

His life has been stolen and they are understandably devastated, and that is where I start in this.

Andy Burnham, who is campaigning to be Labour MP for Makerfield on the basis that he could replace Keir Starmer as PM soon after the byelection, is in favour of proportional representation (PR). He says, if he were to become PM, he would include this in Labour’s next election.

In parliament, supporters of PR claim the popularity of their cause is growing. The all-party parliamentary group for fair elections says more than 100 MPs have now signed an amendment to the representation of the people bill a National Commission on Electoral Reform.

Alex Sobel, the Labour MP show chairs the APPG, says:

We’ve got two thirds of seats [in parliament], the Labour party, on a third of the vote.

If you look at recent council elections, Reform won two-thirds of the seats on a third of the vote in more than one local authority.

So the system is shattered. It’s a 19th century voting system in a 21st century political reality, and the two things need to come to a head.

So far the amendent has been signed by 72 Labour MPs, 24 Lib Dems, all five Green MPs, and the one Alliance MP.

Keir Starmer has announced that the government is going to update the cabinet manual, the guide for ministers explaining the laws and conventions that determine how the government operates. In a written ministerial statement, he says the current text is 15 years old and out of date. He says

The manual was first published in 2011 and has not been updated since. As a result, it has become significantly out of date, most notably in its descriptions of general elections, the UK’s relationship with the EU, and the devolution settlements. Its value for ministers and officials, helping them navigate the UK’s constitutional arrangements, has been diminished by this lack of accuracy. An update will therefore restore the manual’s status as an authoritative guide.

When the manual was published in 2011, the UK was still in the EU. And elections were governed by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which had just been passed. The Scottish parliament and the Senedd have both obtained new powers since 2011 too.

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the new Welsh first minister, has used his first question time in the Senedd to say that he intends to get rid of the longest hospital waits in Wales within months, the BBC reports.

Two of Labour’s leading policy figures, who put forward “manifestos” for Andy Burnham and a centrist grouping, are to join forces to help forge new ideas for a future government, Jessica Elgot reports.

Mathew Lawrence, the director of Common Wealth, who authored the Manchesterism essay, and Mark McVitie, who wrote the Labour Growth Group’s An Honest Day, said Labour must reject the idea of “tribes” – such as blue Labour, new Labour and soft left – and find common ground in opposing high everyday costs and predatory capitalism.

They have written a joint article for the New Statesman. Here’s an extract.

Our diagnosis is the same. Britain pays too much for the basics because the state has lost control of the foundations ordinary life and enterprise depend on. Housing, energy, water, transport, care and local infrastructure have become too expensive, too fragile and too extractive. Government then spends ever more compensating people for costs it has failed to remove at source. That is the maintenance of decline, and left unbroken it leads to only one political outcome: a total takeover by the forces of populism.

The answer is where our ideas can converge. This lies in remaking what the state is for – not distributing while the pie shrinks, but creating the conditions for cheap and reliable essentials, where contribution is rewarded, extraction is disciplined and Britain can build the productive assets it needs. A state that sets out to be productive before it has become capable will fail. It will hand its new public corporation the same planning delays, legal timidity and procurement failures that already frustrate reform. But a state that recovers its capability and then refuses to use it for its people has won a barren victory. One of us has written about how the state recovers the power to act, the other about what it should do with that power where the market has stopped serving the public. A state that wants to be productive must first become capable. A state that has become capable has no excuse not to be productive. We believe in the power of markets. We want more challengers, more productive risk-taking, more firms able to scale, more entrepreneurs building in Britain – rather than selling early and leaving.

There are 11 Sikh MPs in parliament, all Labour. They have put out a joint statement today expressing support for the family of Henry Nowak and saying people should not allow his murder to “divide communities or fuel hostility towards innocent people”. The letter has been been organised by Jas Athwal, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for British Sikhs. He says:

Henry Nowak was brutally murdered in a senseless act of violence by Vickrum Digwa.

The Sikh community stands with Henry’s family and friends as they come to terms with his loss.

We share the grief, shock and anger at his murder and stand with his family in the pursuit of truth and justice.

We urge people to not allow the actions of this one murderer to divide communities and fuel hostility towards innocent people.

Andy Burnham criticised “profiteering” by water companies, citing the industry as a classic example of where privatisation has failed consumers.

While campaigning in the Makerfield byelection today, Burnham said United Utilities, which is based in the north-west, should cancel the final dividend due to be paid to shareholders in August and redistribute the money to lower costs for consumers instead, after the company’s profits surged following an increase in bills.

He said:

There is simply no justification for profiteering on this scale when people are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

This confirms why people feel the system is rigged against them. It makes the case for essential public services coming back under public control.

He said water was a “classic case” where privatisation had failed.

Forty years of neoliberalism in Britain has left us with essential services, which the public have no choice but to use, which work to serve private vested interests over the public interest.

The water industry is a classic case of one where the shareholders always win and the bill payers always lose.

People are right to be angry that they are being asked to pay for bill hikes they cannot afford, only for their hard-earned cash to pour into the pockets of shareholders.

He said excess profits in the sector were “unjustifiable” and added: “Water companies should put these surging profits into lowering bills, improving services and protecting communities.”

As the Press Association reports, Burnham also called on the government to make it mandatory for housing developers to implement the highest standards for flood resilience at project and household level in areas at risk of flooding. Residents in the Makerfield constituency faced flooding in 2015 and 2025, with some still not able to return to their homes, Burnham said.

Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson who used to be the Tory justice spokeperson, said the police officer who handcuffed Henry Nowak should be “prosecuted for a total dereliction of duty”.

But what mattered was why the officer acted like that, he said. Like Chris Philp (see 2.22pm), he also mentioned Valdo Calocane and Axel Rudakubana. He claimed there was “a sickness rooted in the anti-racism agenda” and he urged Mahmood to root it out.

Mahmood replies:

I don’t think this is a moment to pit white Britons against non-white Britons. This is a moment to reflect on a horrific tragedy.

She said everyone should be equal before the law.

That applies whether you’re a non-white British family that arrived here 50 years ago or 10 years ago, or if you’re a white Brit whose family have been here for about 300 years or more; we are all equal before the law of our land, and we should all support that principle.

Labour’s Tan Dhesi also condemned Reform UK for their response to the Nowak murder. He told MPs:

What’s very galling is that the likes of Reform, Restore and the far-right decided to politicise people’s pain, attacking the Sikh community for wearing the kirpan and wanting it banned – even though the kirpan was not used in this violent attack.

And they’ve decided to scapegoat and throw under the bus an entire community based on the actions of one violent murderer.

In her response to Wilkinson (see 2.51pm), Mahmood endorsed what he said about Nigel Farage – but without referencing him directly.

She said:

Anyone using this tragedy, this horrific, vile act of murder, in order to stoke further division in our country should be rejected by everyone across this house.

Political grandstanding and further division is not what is needed.

Clear-eyed action, and a commitment to ensuring all of our citizens are equal before the law of our collective land, is what is needed.

Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, told MPs that most politicians had responded to the Henry Nowak case with sensitivyt. But not Nigel Farage, he said.

Referring to the Reform UK leader, Wilkinson said:

It is therefore all the more disturbing that we have seen [Farage] once again using tragedy to divide British communities. We all know why he does this. He’s made a career out of this and has become rich as a result.

But we are also well aware, as he is, that his actions are divisive, dangerous and fundamentally and un-British.

In response to Philip, Mahmood said that the government was considering its response to the first report from the inquiry into the Southport killings, and the Nottingham inquiry is still taking place.

On the police anti-racism commitment (see 2.22pm), she said that initiative began life when the Tories were in power. She went on:

In fact, I’m old enough to remember when Theresa May called out disproportionate use of stop and search for black communities in particular.

She said the police should maintain the confidence of all communites.

Philp should accept the “context here relating to racism and the police”, she said.

Whatever changes are made, it is important that nobody over-corrects or course-corrects such that all of us as citizens are no longer equal before the law.

She said Philp should not ignore the “historic and legitimate concerns” from some communities about policing. She went on:

I condemn all types of differential and every type of differential, treatment. I do not stand for it.

My own track record as a government minister shows I will always act when there is evidence of differential treatment. And it is absolutely vital that that message is heard loud and clear across the whole of our country.