David Lammy is friends with vice-president JD Vance.David Lammy has hit back at Donald Trump’s government’s claim that there is “two-tier policing” in the UK.
The deputy prime minister spoke out after the US State Department waded into the row over the murder of Henry Nowak.
The 18-year-old was handcuffed and arrested as he lay dying after being wrongly accused of racism by his killer, Vickram Digwa.
Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years at Southampton Crown Court on Monday.
In a message posted on X, the State Department said: “Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilisational decline. They must be rejected across the West.
“The United States sends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.”
The post has sparked an angry backlash, with critics accusing the Trump administration of trying to interfere in British politics.
On Radio 4′s Today programme this morning, Lammy joined in the criticism.
He said: “I saw the message and we work very closely with the United States. Our law enforcement works with the United States, and I saw that there was a message of condolence to the family and I thank the United States for that message of condolence.
“I don’t recognise this caricature of a two-tier policing system in our country. I just don’t see it in the interactions I have with policing and so I do reject that.”
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