Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused Elon Musk of trying to whip up division in Britain over the murder of Henry Novak, a case that has triggered a major political row, GB News reported. The billionaire former owner of the social media platform has posted repeatedly about the way police handled the incident, after body cam footage showed the 18-year-old being handcuffed as he lay dying in Southampton. The disclosure of that footage has turned a local tragedy into a national argument about policing and public trust.
Starmer said there were serious questions for the police to answer over the case, but insisted that the police watchdog must be allowed to carry out its investigation before conclusions are drawn. The Prime Minister confirmed he would meet Henry Novak's family privately in Downing Street, and he urged public figures to listen to the family, who have asked that the teenager's death not be used to inflame tensions. He framed his own response as one of restraint while the official inquiry runs its course.
In his sharpest comments, Starmer turned directly on Musk, saying the country needed to assert its own values. He argued that Musk had again been interfering in British politics in recent days and trying to whip up division, adding that this was not who Britain was as a country. He described Britons as reasonable and tolerant people who react calmly to a terrible case such as Henry's, as the family themselves had done, and said that when it came to what he called disgusting images on Grok, the response was to take them on and fight.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also met Henry's mother, father and stepmother, and said afterwards that they wanted truth, accountability and change, but did not want anger to tear communities apart. Badenoch said the family had shown extraordinary courage in agreeing to release the distressing body cam footage of Henry's final moments, a decision that has shaped the public debate. She cast the relatives as seeking answers rather than confrontation, even as the case became a flashpoint in Westminster.
According to Badenoch, the family also agreed that there needs to be common sense in how equality is treated under the law. She said religious exemptions that allow dangerous weapons to be carried in public should be examined carefully, raising a question that has become central to the wider argument around the case. Her intervention pushed the dispute beyond the conduct of officers on the night and into the rules that govern how the law is applied.
The row also drew in Reform UK, with Robert Jenrick defending Nigel Farage and calling it ludicrous to claim that the party leader was stoking any division. In the Commons the previous day, Farage had argued that Henry's case exposed a wider loss of trust in policing, and he challenged Starmer over guidance on how officers treat different communities. Farage claimed the country was living under what he called two-tier policing, saying instructions given to officers by police bosses were written down and told them to treat different ethnic groups in different ways.
Starmer hit back at that argument, accusing Farage of turning a tragedy into grievance and division. He said he was shocked that the Reform leader claimed to respect Henry's family and then acted in such a way, describing his response as an appeal for rage at a moment when a grieving father had asked for exactly that not to happen. Jenrick, for his part, said Reform wanted an equal treatment act that would require police to treat everyone the same regardless of the colour of their skin, setting up a continuing clash over how policing should be reformed.