Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer will meet the family of murdered student Henry Nowak, whose treatment by police has triggered a political row.
The private meeting is set to take place in Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, No 10 said.
The labour leader has urged politicians to heed Mr Nowak’s relatives’ calls not to use the case “to cause disturbances”, as he accused Elon Musk of trying to “whip up division” in the UK over the murder.
Violent protests erupted earlier this week near where the 18-year-old was fatally stabbed, amid an outcry over his treatment, after his killer Vickrum Digwa claimed he had been the victim of a racial attack, while Mr Nowak was handcuffed by police who ignored his pleas that he could not breathe as he lay dying.
Digwa, 23, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years earlier this week following the murder of Nowak back in December 2025.
Billionaire X owner Elon Musk has posted numerous times on his platform about the police response to the stabbing of the teenager in Southampton last year, including offering to fund a private prosecution of Hampshire Constabulary.
The prime minister told reporters during a trip to York on Thursday: “We need to also assert who we are as a country because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division – that is not who we are in Britain.
“In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people. When we have a terrible case like Henry’s case, Henry Nowak, we react calmly, as his family have done.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also stressed that Henry Nowak’s family “do not want anger to tear communities apart”, after meeting his mother, father and stepmother on Thursday morning.
She added that the family agreed with her that “we need to bring common sense back” to how equality is treated under the law.
