Henry Nowak was an 18-year-old student who was stabbed five times in Southampton and left bleeding out while police handcuffed him and cautioned him. This happened because his killer made a false claim of racism and the police believed it. The bodycam footage is unbearable. Henry said, ‘I have been stabbed’ and ‘I can’t breathe’. The officers dismissed him.

His family has said, heartbreakingly, that he did not die with dignity. This is a failure of policing, born of decades of ideology that puts community tensions above evidence, above humanity, and above a dying young man’s blood.

Two voices have stood out to me so far. Not because I agree with everything they say, and not because they agree with everything I have written, but because they have cut through the noise with something we rarely see in our political class: grace, clarity, principle, and, most importantly, basic human decency.

Those voices belong to Kemi Badenoch and Festus Akinbusoye. One is the leader of the Conservative party. The other is a former police and crime commissioner, special constable, and councillor in Westminster. Both have Nigerian heritage, and neither seems remotely interested in playing the identity game. In 2026 Britain, that is very important.

Badenoch and Akinbusoye are showing us what real leadership and commentary can look like

Badenoch and Akinbusoye are showing us what real leadership and commentary can look like

Festus wrote a piece in a recent edition of the Independent, and it is worth reading in full. He did not shy away from the horror. Henry deserved better than to die in handcuffs while his murderer’s lies were initially believed. He backs a swift investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and wants........

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