Henry Nowak Murder: Starmer and Badenoch Meet Family
Both Starmer and Badenoch met Henry Nowak's family separately on June 4; Badenoch said the family agreed on 'common sense'; Starmer criticised Musk for stoking division. Reform UK posted £9.3m in Q1 donations (£7m from two crypto-billionaires); the Times reported the defence plan may be cut from £18bn to £15bn. Polish, French, Spanish and Japanese far-right figures spread Nowak death footage; a senior officer warned against reactive reforms; a Surrey campus safety officer was shot with a crossbow by a former student.
Both party leaders moved to meet Henry Nowak's family on June 4. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saw Nowak's father, mother, and stepmother in the morning and said they agreed with her about the 'need to bring common sense back.' Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a separate private meeting in Downing Street that afternoon, No 10 confirmed. The back-to-back visits reflect how thoroughly the case -- and the politics swirling around it -- has absorbed Westminster for the second consecutive week. Starmer separately criticised Elon Musk for trying to 'whip up division' in the UK; a government minister dismissed 'two-tier justice' accusations as a 'slur' on police; and Robert Jenrick called it 'ludicrous' to say Reform UK was stoking division over the murder. Reform UK reported £9.3 million in Q1 2026 donations, including £7 million from two crypto-billionaires, a figure disclosed as the party's exploitation of the Nowak case drew repeated criticism. The Times reported that Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves met twice in one week to discuss whether the defence investment plan -- due before the July NATO summit in Ankara -- would be cut from £18 billion to approximately £15 billion over four years.
The murder's international amplification continued. Polish far-right politicians claimed it symbolised 'Britain's descent into the depths of the earth.' Populists from France, Spain, and Japan circulated footage of Nowak's dying moments across social media to feed anti-immigration narratives, despite his family's public pleas against political exploitation of the case. The same day, a man pleaded guilty to violent disorder at a Southampton protest that had erupted in the days immediately after the murder.
Andy George, chief inspector at the Police Service of Northern Ireland and president of the National Black Police Association, warned that police forces risk making 'not well thought-out' changes to anti-racism guidance in a reactive scramble following the murder. He was the second senior officer in two days to publicly caution against policy changes driven by political pressure rather than evidence.
An unrelated violent incident added to the day's crime headlines. A campus safety officer in his 50s at the University of Surrey was shot with a crossbow at Manor Park Student Village in Guildford at around 10 a.m. A 21-year-old former student was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder and taken into custody.
In other domestic business: the number of private school pupils in England fell to 560,255 in January, down 3.8 percent from 582,477 the previous year -- the lowest in at least a decade -- following the introduction of 20 percent VAT on private school fees in January 2025. The SNP's national executive committee voted to pursue legal action to recover the £400,000 Peter Murrell stole from party funds; a restraint order has frozen Murrell's assets, including two pensions valued at £613,500 and the home he owns jointly with Nicola Sturgeon. A Pride Month debate in the Commons saw Labour MP Sarah Owen, chair of the women and equalities committee, call the Equality and Human Rights Commission's new single-sex guidance 'unworkable and unjust.'