Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns storms out of meeting after discussion of Henry Nowak murder | Politics

Andrea Jenkyns walked out of a meeting with a cabinet minister and several other metropolitan mayors on Thursday after a heated discussion about the murder of Henry Nowak and the civil unrest that has followed.

The Reform mayor of Greater Lincolnshire walked out of the meeting with the communities secretary, Steve Reed, and other regional leaders after a row over the role social media has played in exacerbating community tensions.

The argument is the latest sign of the political tensions that have flared in the wake of Nowak’s murder by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh man who falsely told police Nowak had racially abused him. The incident has prompted demonstrations attended by far-right activists, leading to violence and arrests.

Keir Starmer has accused the X owner, Elon Musk, of exacerbating those tensions with near constant posting about the case over the last few weeks. The prime minister has also accused the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, of exploiting Nowak’s death for political purposes.

Thursday’s meeting between Reed and mayors from various parties was intended to be a policy-heavy discussion about which powers mayors would like to take over from the national government in London. The final segment was given over to a discussion about social cohesion given the events of the last few days.

According to several sources at the meeting, Reed opened the discussion by saying he believed non-state actors were deliberately trying to stoke divisions in Britain, often using social media to do so. He specifically blamed “hostile foreign actors” for exacerbating the tensions seen on the streets of Southampton in recent days and asked the mayors for ideas to promote social cohesion.

Oliver Coppard, the Labour mayor of South Yorkshire, echoed those sentiments and said recent protests from both left- and rightwing groups had left some communities feeling unsafe.

Those there say Jenkyns seemed to react angrily to these comments, especially to the remarks about social media.

Warning those in attendance that she was about to drop a “truth bomb”, she said she believed there could be no social cohesion without freedom of speech and accused Labour figures of trying to deflect from criticism of Starmer’s handling of the murder case.

Steve Rotheram, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, rejected her comments and accused her of having previously been part of a Conservative government that ignored the suffering of the families of those who died at the Hillsborough disaster.

The argument then continued between Jenkyns and Tracy Brabin, the Labour mayor of West Yorkshire, at which point Jenkyns muttered something under her breath and walked out. Her Reform colleague Luke Campbell, the mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, remained behind to finish the meeting.

Afterwards, Jenkyns told the Guardian: “The claim that I stormed out is a total exaggeration by a panicked Labour party clutching at straws ahead of a byelection. I simply left the meeting 15 minutes early because I am not a person who can sit around and listen to hypocrisy.

“I stood up and calmly argued that true social cohesion is impossible without genuine freedom of speech, and that the current obsession with divisive identity politics and two-tier policing is leaving ordinary communities feeling completely unheard.

“I have never condoned violence from any community, everyone must be equal under the rule of law … We will not solve the deep divisions in Britain by playing political games with leaked, distorted accounts of private meetings.”

The row threatened to overshadow the main point of the meeting, which was to discuss how mayors could use the rights in the Devolution Act passed earlier this year.

Reed said afterwards: “This government is serious about shifting power out of Westminster and into the hands of our mayors.”

Coppard declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Reed.