Ahmedabad Times

David Lammy (L) and JD Vance (R)

UK deputy prime minister David Lammy says he referred to as US Vice-President JD Vance to inform him he was “fallacious” for linking the homicide of British teenager Henry Nowak by Sikh man Vickrum Digwa to “mass migration”, saying the case had “nothing to do” with immigration.Talking to British broadcasters on Sunday, Lammy mentioned he held an “agreeable however strong” dialog with Vance after the US vice-president recommended that Nowak’s killing mirrored the implications of what he referred to as the “mass invasion of migrants” into Western nations.In line with Sky Information, Lammy mentioned he advised Vance: “Look, Mr Vice President, you are fallacious about this,” stressing that the case had “nothing to do with mass migration.”The intervention got here after Vance posted on X that 18-year-old Nowak’s dying symbolised a broader civilisational decline, arguing that European leaders had failed to face up towards mass migration and “the politics of self-hatred.”Lammy pushed again towards that characterisation, mentioning that the UK’s democratic and authorized establishments had been functioning correctly. He famous that the perpetrator, Vickrum Digwa, had been convicted, whereas a number of opinions had been beneath approach into police conduct, sentencing and policing steerage.“This younger man was a Brit. Let’s be clear about that,” Lammy mentioned, referring to Digwa, who was born within the UK.Digwa, 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimal time period of 21 years after being discovered responsible of murdering Nowak in Southampton in December final 12 months. In the course of the incident, Digwa falsely claimed he had been racially abused and acted in self-defence.Public anger intensified after bodycam footage confirmed Nowak mendacity on the bottom telling officers he had been stabbed and was struggling to breathe. Whereas one officer requested, “You’ve been stabbed? Whereabouts?”, one other responded: “Don’t assume you will have, mate.”Lammy mentioned he additionally reminded Vance of the needs of Nowak’s household, who’ve repeatedly urged individuals to not use the tragedy to gasoline social divisions.“I urged him that it is not useful to tweet on this approach,” Lammy mentioned, including that he had reminded the vice-president of the household’s attraction for calm and their want to keep away from turning the case into a problem of “division and hatred.”In line with Lammy, Vance defended his place by arguing that what he sees as conventional Western values are beneath assault. Nonetheless, the British minister mentioned he disagreed with what he described as Vance’s “caricature” of Western civilisation and its decline.Regardless of the disagreement, Lammy emphasised that the 2 stay on good phrases. The pair have developed an unlikely friendship over latest years and have maintained common contact regardless of political variations.Henry Nowak’s father, Mark Nowak, has repeatedly appealed for his son’s dying to not be politicised, saying after the sentencing that the household didn’t need the tragedy for use to create “additional division, hatred or rigidity.”