Tory frontbencher demands 'political correctness' be 'rooted out' of Britain's justice system: 'It's corrupt!'

Following protests in Southampton by outraged Britons over the treatment of Mr Nowak by police, Mr Timothy told GB News that the officers involved will no doubt be "wrestling with their consciences about what they did".

He said: "I think it's right that the case is being looked at by the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct). Clearly the individual officers made the decisions they did and I'm sure they will be wrestling with their consciences about what they did.

"I think the job for politicians is to actually look at the structural reasons as to why these things are happening."

The Shadow Justice Secretary argued that the case of Mr Nowak is "not an isolated example" of officers turning to "political correctness" in their handling of incidents.

He explained: "We all saw the footage, it's absolutely terrible. And I don't know how Henry's family feel about about knowing that that's how their boy died, but this is not an isolated example.

"Our criminal justice system and our law enforcement are being corrupted by political correctness and by left-wing ideologies that talk about equity rather than equality."

Criticising the current Race Action Plan in place for police officers, Mr Timothy added: "They say that we need to treat people differently on the basis of their racial and their religious identity, that is completely wrong.

"If you believe in the rule of law, you have to believe in equality before the law, and that's what we need to get back to."

Challenged by host Alex Armstrong, Mr Timothy was questioned on Reform UK Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf's argument that the Tories "injected DEI into policing" during their last 14 years in Downing Street.

Rejecting Mr Yusuf's remarks, the Tory MP responded: "No, I don't accept that. I think what has happened over a period of time is that organisations that have a high degree of autonomy, which is natural when you're talking about policing or the criminal justice system, have accepted some of these ideological premises. They need to be rooted out.

"And I think Kemi Badenoch in Government was actually one of the biggest critics of the way in which these things were working."

Outlining the "two things" that must be done in order to tackle DEI policing, the Shadow Justice Secretary told GB News: "We've got to take on these arguments at a very intellectual level. It's completely wrong to undermine the principle of equality before the law.

"It's completely wrong to say that we should treat people differently on the basis of their racial or religious identity.

"And we need to try to introduce more accountability and more political and democratic oversight over some of these institutions, to make sure that we can root these problems out of the system."

Asked for his verdict on the protests in Southampton on Tuesday evening, Mr Timothy made clear that "violence and public disorder is never acceptable".

He concluded: "The debate really lies in what are the reasons as to why our law enforcement agencies and why our criminal justice system are making mistakes of the kind that we saw with Henry's death."

In a statement, a spokesman for the Independent Office for Police Conduct said: "As part of our ongoing investigation, we are reviewing a large amount of police body-worn footage which we need to consider the context with other evidence that we've obtained, including review material presented during the murder trial as we establish the full circumstances.

"The officers involved are currently being treated as witnesses, however, as with all investigations, this is kept under review throughout."