Kemi Badenoch has said the murder of Henry Nowak is another “Stephen Lawrence moment” for British policing.
Speaking to GB News, the Conservative Party leader gave her emotional reaction to the killing of the 18-year-old student and his treatment by police just moments before his death.
Murderer Vickrum Digwa falsely accused Henry Nowak of racism, leading the police to handcuff the teen after arriving at the scene.
“I can't describe how I felt. Even thinking about it now makes me incredibly emotional,” Mrs Badenoch said.
The Tory leader rejected the suggestion that the case could be compared to the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
“I think this is a moment in the way Stephen Lawrence was. Let's use our own country's examples,” she told The People’s Channel.
“We do not have institutionally racist police. I think that we need to look at the laws we have today. They are not necessarily fit for purpose.
“We can't keep acting as if the UK is in the 1940s or the 1970s. We are not a racist country.
Kemi Badenoch has said the murder of Henry Nowak is a ‘Stephen Lawrence moment’ after police bodycam footage was released
|GB NEWS
“We need equality under the law, not special treatment for people based on the colour of their skin, whatever that is.
“And the Government should pass a law to ensure that.
“In theory, we have laws to ensure that. But you look at all of the guidance that comes out, all of the interpretation. That's where it's going wrong,” Mrs Badenoch said.
The Conservative Party leader also addressed gestures such as a minute's silence in the House of Commons, which Keir Starmer and other MPs observed following the death of George Floyd.
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“So we need more than that. We need the whole of society to start looking at what we're doing.
“All of the companies, all of the public bodies, all the people who took the knee for a man in the US who died had nothing to do with us. Where are they now?
“It was all a big fad. And if more people had done what I did, resisted the pressure, then we would have more sensible policing.”
Reacting to the bodycam video, which showed police arresting Henry Nowak despite his pleas that he had been stabbed and could not breathe, Mrs Badenoch said: “I can't describe how I felt.”
The murder of the 18-year-old student Henry Nowak and his treatment by police just moments before his death has sparked outrage
| HAMPSHIRE & ISLE OF WIGHT POLICE“Even thinking about it now makes me incredibly emotional. I watched it because I just needed to see for myself what had happened, and all I was thinking of was that it could have been my kid.
“I just could not express to you how awful I feel for Henry and his family. Hard to have those be his dying moments. It's an awful way to die. An appalling way to die.
“I don't think the police could have saved his life, but for him to have been handcuffed, his rights being read to him, the person who killed him, standing over his body, calling him a racist. No one should ever have to die like that.
“My heart goes out to his father, his sister, and his mother. I watched them give their statement, you know. My eyes were welling up in tears.
Vickrum Digwa, 23, was found guilty at Southampton Crown Court of the murder of university student Henry Nowak | CPS“No family should ever have to go through what they have gone through. No one should ever have to go through what Henry went through.”
“It's absolutely appalling. It is appalling. And I think every parent in the country will be looking at that and thinking, how could this happen?
“What I see now is a state and state bodies, police who don't know how to do the right thing anymore. Where is the common sense?
“You don't need a list of rules and regulations to tell you what to do in that situation. Simple humanity should have allowed them to ask more questions.
“I do think that part of the problem is the training that the police have been given. All of this nonsense that came in after the Black Lives Matter movement,” Mrs Badenoch said