British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office on Friday denounced "people trying to interfere in our democracy" after US Vice President JD Vance condemned Britain's handling of the murder of a white student, Henry Nowak, by a Sikh man.
"Henry Nowak died the same way a civilisation dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit," US Vice President JD Vance said on X.
The Downing Street statement followed comments by Vance on X linking the young student's murder to what he said was civilisational decline caused by mass migration.
"In recent days, we have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets," a spokesperson for Starmer's Downing Street office said in a statement.
"The Nowak family are grieving after Henry's horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes.
"Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country," it added.
Starmer on Thursday accused South African tech tycoon Elon Musk of "trying to whip up division" over the case, which has sparked public outrage.
Eighteen-year-old Nowak, a first-year finance and accounting university student, was put in handcuffs by police as he lay mortally wounded after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, in the southern city of Southampton in December.
Digwa lied and told the police he was the victim, as Nowak had racially insulted him.
Far-right figures have claimed the murder is evidence that police forces in Britain treat white people and ethnic minorities differently, an allegation Starmer's Labour government and police chiefs vehemently deny.
Black people in England and Wales are more than twice as likely to be arrested as white people, according to government statistics.
Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has posted numerous times on the platform about the police response to the stabbing.
In one, he asked whether people knew that "official police policy requires them to be racist against Whites?"
Musk has offered to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder and insulted the Hampshire Police force.
President Donald Trump's administration is increasingly weighing in, with Vance, a long-term critic of European migration policies, becoming the highest-ranking US official to comment on the killing.
