ELECTORAL POLITICS| GOVERNMENT POLICY
As anti-migrant, anti-equalities, anti-abortion, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQI rhetoric in electoral campaigning are increasingly interlinked, we reflect this in the coverage below.
The trial of the murderer of Henry Nowak and its aftermath is also covered in sections on ANTI-FASCISM AND FAR RIGHT, POLICE PRISONS AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, and RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT
30 May: Following the conviction and life sentence given to a Sikh man for the murder of Southampton student Henry Nowak, Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick, as well as Elon Musk, calls for a ban on the Sikh ceremonial sword, the kirpan. During the trial, it is revealed that the murderer, Vickrum Digwa, presented himself to police arriving at the murder scene as the victim of racial abuse, leading to Nowak being handcuffed and treated as a suspect, despite telling officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe. (Sun, 30 May 2026; Guardian, 2 June 2026)
1 June: Index on Censorship criticises Home Office bans on US political commentators and critics of Israel, Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker, from entering the UK to speak at events organised by SXSW and the Oxford Union, on the grounds that their presence is not conducive to the public good. (Guardian, 1 June 2026)
2 June: In relation to the murder of Henry Nowak, the home secretary warns of ‘dangerous commentary’ and says that she will not accept ‘differential treatment by police’. Hampshire Police Federation issues a statement condemning calls for ‘vigilante justice’ against police officers and asks ‘politicians of all parties and media commentators to be more responsible in their comments – and allow due process for the officers involved to ensue’. (Guardian, 2 June 2026)
2 June: After police release bodycam footage showing officers handcuffing murder victim Henry Nowak, Nigel Farage gives a livestreamed ‘emergency address’. People should respond with ‘pure cold rage’ to ‘anti-white prejudice’ as ‘white lives matter just as much as black lives’, he says. Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe calls for the return of the death penalty. (Byline Times, 3 June 2026; Guardian, 3 June 2026)
3 June: Speaking on BBC breakfast radio, police minister Sarah Jones says that the wording of a National Police Chiefs Council guidance document (Police Anti-Racism Commitment), which speaks of giving culturally appropriate services and achieving equality of outcomes, ‘gives the wrong impression’, but that it is important also to remember that there is a long history of racism in policing that needs to be acknowledged. (BBC News, 3 June 2026)
3 June: During debates about the murder of Henry Nowak in the House of Lords and parliament, Lord Davies of Gower says that ‘all instances of identity politics must be consigned to the dustbin of history’ and asks whether the government will be ‘scrapping the police anti-racism commitment and all similar ideology-motivated equality, diversity and inclusion policies’. Baroness Cash calls for a review of police training. Baroness Doreen Lawrence criticises Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s statement that the murder of Henry Nowak ‘must be a seminal moment for Britain on a par with the murder of Stephen Lawrence’, and urges politicians not to halt progress on racial equality. (Independent, 3 June 2026)
3 June: Reform-controlled Essex County Council tells library staff to scale back promotion of events not related to their day-to-day activities, including Pride, so as to avoid highlighting ‘any particular group or themes’. (BBC News, 3 June 2026)
3 June: Arsonists smashed the windows of a car belonging to the brother of Green party activist and former parliamentary candidate Salma Yaqoob and parked in the drive of the family home, poured petrol over it and set fire to it, in what is believed to be a targeted attack on her. (BBC News, 8 June 2026; The Canary, 6 June 2026)
4 June: Reform-controlled Havering and Essex County Councils restrict the use of LGBTQ+ flags during Pride month. The leader of Havering Council says the only flags they are willing to fly were for ‘our heroes like the armed forces’. (Metro, 4 June 2026)
4 June: The prime minister, responding to violent scenes in Southampton following a far-right protest at the police handling of the murder of Henry Nowak, criticises Nigel Farage as well as Elon Musk, who has repeatedly claimed that the murder of the student shows that the UK is biased against white people. (Byline Times, 3 June 2026; Guardian, 4 June 2026)
📌 ICYMI — The Neo-Nazi and Far-Right Coalition that Converged on Southampton Over Henry Nowak’s Murder — @josiahmortimer.bsky.social
There were Nazi salutes and ‘White Power’ chants on the streets of Southampton, after the Reform UK leader called for “pure cold rage” in response to Nowak’s death
— Byline Times (@bylinetimes.bsky.social) 4 June 2026 at 20:00
5 June: In a social media post offering condolences to the family of Henry Nowak, Marco Rubio’s US State department criticises ‘two -tier policing’ in the UK and warns of ‘ideological conditioning’, both examples of civilisational decline, it claims. A post on X by J D Vance blames Nowak’s murder on the ‘mass invasion of migrants’. (Guardian, 5 June 2026; BBC News, 6 June 2026)
6 June: Local people begin a crowdfunder to allow Refugee Week events to go ahead after the Reform-led council of St Helens, Lancashire, withdraws funding on the grounds that it ‘puts British people first’. Demands for the return of money already sent out by the previous Labour council are unsuccessful. (BBC News, 6 June 2026)
6 June: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch writes to the prime minister calling for an independent rapid review into the circumstances surrounding the death of Henry Nowak. (Sky News, 6 June 2026)
7 June: Justice minister Jake Richards is ‘horrified’ by US defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments at a D-Day commemoration in Normandy that ‘European beaches are [being] stormed by different, dangerous ideologies… When will European capitals do something about that invasion, or is it too late?’ (Huffington Post, 7 June 2026)
9 June: A Conservative programme to ‘restore common sense’ will scrap the Public Sector Equality Duty, says Kemi Badenoch, as it has led to some groups being ‘preferred over others’ and some public bodies being so worried about ‘institutional racism that they have become institutionally incompetent’. (BBC News, 9 June 2026)
9 June: Following the arrest of a Sudanese asylum seeker for a stabbing in Belfast that leaves the victim in a serious condition, Nigel Farage calls on the authorities to immediately disclose the suspect’s identity and immigration status and the leader of the DUP calls for the perpetrator to be immediately deported ‘on the first flight out, on a one-way ticket’. (BBC News, 9 June 2026)
ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT
30 May: The second Remigration Summit takes place behind closed doors in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, with European far-right and US MAGA movement attendees calling for mass deportations to preserve ‘white identity’. Speakers include Martin Sellner of the Austrian Identitarian Movement and Spain’s Vox MPs Rocio de Meer and Carlos Hernandez Quero, while organiser Andrea Ballarati already faces charges of incitement to hatred and racial discrimination. (ANSA, 30 May 2026)
31 May: 70 far-right activists, including from White Vanguard, attend a vigil for Henry Nowak outside Southampton’s Portswood police station, organised by the National Rebirth Party, a splinter group from Patriotic Alternative. (Byline Times, 3 June 2026)
1 June: A conference of European far-right and neo-fascist organisations takes place in Belgrade, Serbia, with links to US-sanctioned, pro-Russian nationalist Misha Vacić, Russian far-right billionaire Konstantin Malofeev and his neo-Nazi network the International League of Anti-Globalists ‘Paladins’. Speakers include Roberto Fiore of the Italian Forza Nuova party and Gonzalo Martín of Spanish neo-Nazi party Democracia Nacional, both of whom also attended the St Petersburg congress, as well as Ioannis Zografos of Greek movement K-21, which emerged from the collapse of Golden Dawn. (The Insider, 1 June 2026)
3 June: Tommy Robinson claims on X that Henry Nowak was ‘murdered by racist police policy’s [sic] that target white people’ and calls on his supporters to protest in Southampton. (Guardian, 3 June 2026)
3 June: Southampton Patriots call a ‘Justice for Henry Nowak’ protest outside Southampton police station, where masked men give Nazi salutes and Tommy Robinson addresses the crowd. Riot police are deployed after protesters attempt to march to the neighbourhood where the family of Vickrum Digwa lives. The chief of Hampshire police accuses those involved of being ‘determined to spark fear and division’. (Byline Times, 3 June 2026; Guardian, 3 June 2026)
4 June: European far-right figures exploit the murder of Henry Nowak, focusing on race and immigration despite pleas from his family not to politicise the killing. Polish MEP Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik describes the British-citizen murderer as ‘an Indian’ and blames ‘mass immigration’; French far-right politician Éric Zemmour claims the ‘immigrant perpetrator’ is being protected by the ‘religion of anti-racism’; and Spain’s Vox leader Santiago Abascal says ‘the British people are burning with rage’. (Guardian, 4 June 2026)
9 June: Following a stabbing in Belfast by a Sudanese man leaving an unidentified victim critically injured, crowds including masked men burn vehicles and houses after far-right figures including Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk call on people to take to the streets. (Guardian, 9 June 2026)
POLICING| PRISONS| CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
27 May: West Midlands police data reveals that Black and mixed ethnicity individuals are 3.5 times more likely to be stopped and searched by officers compared with white individuals and that Black people are 2.3 times more likely, and mixed ethnicity people 1.5 times more likely, to be subjected to the use of force. (Birmingham Live, 27 May 2026)
29 May: As the CPS announces no further action against Muhammad Amaad and Mohammed Fahir Amaaz regarding an alleged assault on police officers at Manchester airport after two trials, the lawyer for the two brothers says that they ‘have not just faced trial twice but they have faced trial by social media’ and that their ‘lives have been wrecked’. (BBC News, 29 May 2026)
30 May: A Manchester café owner who is under investigation for an alleged Palestine Action offence claims that officers at Ashton-under-Lyne police station offered him financial benefits and to turn a ‘blind eye’ to certain low-level offences if he informed on Palestine Action. (Guardian, 30 May 2026)
Manchester cafe owner says police tried to recruit him to spy on Palestine Action www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026…
— Netpol (@netpol.org) 30 May 2026 at 08:09
2 June: Dutch police in Zeist launch an investigation into the use of force following social media outrage over the case of Malak Mahmoud, a heavily pregnant woman filmed being thrown to the ground by a police officer as her Palestinian husband from Gaza was detained at a migration centre. (Al Jazeera, 2 June 2026)
2 June: As Vickrum Digwa is sentenced, the father of Henry Nowak condemns the ‘inhumane’ and degrading’ treatment of his son by police while calling for knife crime to be treated as a national emergency. He says ‘We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to help make our streets safer for everyone.’ (Independent, 2 June 2026; Guardian, 4 June 2026)
2 June: The police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight requests a review of the culture and performance of the police force’s control room and the training of officers responding to the stabbing of Henry Nowak, as well as a review of religious exemptions on the carrying of knives. (Guardian, 2 June 2026; BBC News, 3 June 2026).
2 June: Sikh organisations issue a joint statement strongly condemning the murder of Henry Novak, but say the blade used by the killer has been wrongly identified as a kirpan, describing it as a Persian blade known as a pesh-kabz which is carried by the Nihang (warrior-sect) subculture, to which martial rights enthusiast Vickrum Digha adhered. The Sikh Press Association says plans are under way to ensure every initiated Sikh in the UK would be addressed directly regarding kirpan rules and responsibilities. (Guardian, 2 June 2026)
3 June: In a new report on policing of protest in Greece, Amnesty International documents the excessive use of force, including with batons and other ‘less lethal weapons’ against peaceful protesters and calls for a ban on the use of stun grenades. (Amnesty International, 3 June 2026)
4 June: Chass Corrigan is jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years for the murder of 20-year-old Saudi student Mohammed Algasim, whom he slashed in the neck outside his student accommodation in Cambridge on 1 August 2025 in a ‘senseless and unprovoked’ attack. Corrigan’s father was earlier found guilty of assisting an offender. (ITV News, 4 June 2026)
4 June: The latest available data for the police force accused of ‘anti-white bias’ and ‘two-tier justice’ in relation to their handling of the murder of Henry Nowak show that Hampshire police are five times more likely to subject Black people to a stop and search than white people. (Guardian, 4 June 2026)
5 June: Prosecutors say three Kurdish activists accused of PKK membership will face retrial after an Old Bailey jury failed to reach verdicts following a four-month trial resulting in no guilty findings and acquittals for three more defendants. The six were arrested in November 2024 in a massive ‘anti-terrorist’ operation involving over 800 police and including a raid on the Kurdish community centre in Haringey. (Declassified UK, 5 June 2026)
“Counter-terrorism legislation is being tested to see how much the state can get away with,” said Iida Käyhkö (@iidaest), a researcher in security studies at Royal Holloway London, who has also written about the criminalisation of the Kurdish Community for R&C ⤵️ https://t.co/UdLiXEHC5Y
— Race & Class (@Race_Class) June 5, 2026
8 June: Sikh community leaders tell Sky News that in 2023, community leaders at a Gurdwara Vickrum Digwa attended raised concerns with the police about his behaviour, particularly the use of weapons, but their concerns were ignored. Hampshire police deny this. (Sky News, 8 June 2026)
ASYLUM | MIGRATION| BORDERS| CITIZENSHIP
Asylum and migrant rights
27 May: Poland’s human rights commissioner expresses concern that a ‘temporary’ ban on asylum claims from all except particularly vulnerable people irregularly crossing the border from Belarus has continued for over a year. (Notes from Poland, 27 May 2026)
1 June: The independent Windrush commissioner, Clive Foster, tells MPs that the Windrush compensation scheme should be overhauled and that survivors should be given legal support in line with programmes for victims of the Post Office Horizon and infected blood scandals, as more than 50 people died before receiving any compensation and 6 out of 10 claims are rejected following a complex and difficult process. (Guardian, 1 June 2026)
5 June: A House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report says the entire asylum system is out of control and lacking a clear strategy, with backlogs leaving thousands lost or in limbo, creating uncertainty and increasing support costs, and calls on the government to set out a clear accountability framework to end excessive profiteering by asylum accommodation providers and to review whether current contract models are fit for purpose. (EIN, 5 June 2026; Morning Star, 5 June 2026)
Borders and internal controls
29 May: Statewatch reveals that the EU is working with Libya’s eastern forces on border control, to expand the ability of Libyan forces to intercept, pull back and detain people seeking to leave the country for Europe. (Statewatch, 29 May 2026)
29 May: As the Home Office awards a £322,000 contract to Akhter Computers to develop AI facial age estimation technology to assess child asylum seekers from mid-2027, the Refugee Children’s Rights Consortium, a coalition of 100 refugee and children’s rights groups, warns that the technology will result in more children being detained as adults through bias and inaccuracy. (BBC, 29 May 2026; Guardian, 1 June 2026)
Reception and detention
29 May: Following a legal challenge by Freedom From Torture and the Helen Bamber Foundation, the high court rules unlawful the 2024 policy changes which force survivors of trafficking, torture and other serious violence into shared rooms with strangers in large accommodation sites without assessing the risks or longstanding evidence of serious harm. FFT estimates that the ruling could affect 10,000 survivors of torture. (Guardian, 29 May 2026)
29 May: FOI data reveals that 284 unaccompanied children were held in British-run detention centres in France last year, an increase of 10 percent on 2024 and 197per cent on 2023. Refugee charities challenge the secrecy surrounding the treatment of children in the centres, especially following safeguarding concerns raised by the chief inspector of prisons at these facilities last year. (Guardian, 29 May 2026)
29 May: An Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) report on short-term holding facilities in south-western ports and airports raises concerns over the lack of information on the use of force on detainees and their inability to access prescribed medication. (IMB, 29 May 2026)
Deportations
29 May: A report by the Jesuit Refugee Service UK and Humans for Rights Network raises concerns over an increasing number of unaccompanied children being wrongly identified as adults and detained under the UK-France ‘one in, one out’ policy. 141 age-disputed young people have been detained since the policy began despite children being explicitly excluded, with at least 18 being removed to France. (EIN, 29 May 2026)
1 June: Children as young as five are receiving letters from the Home Office telling them they must leave the UK, lawyers say. They were given visas to come with care worker parents before March 2024, when the rules changed to stop care workers bringing their partners or children,. (Guardian, 1 June 2026)
Citizenship
1 June: A new report by the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and Impact-Law for Social Justice describes the impact of citizenship deprivation policies on British communities of migrant origin, accompanied by a briefing that sets out the law and practice on deprivation. (ISI, 1 June 2026)
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION
31 May: The Good Law Project launches the crowdfunder ‘Stop the far-right attack on equality’ in support of the charity 10,000 Interns, that supports internships for thousands of young Black people and has come under attack from pundit Sophie Corcoran, who launched a legal action on grounds that the charity is ‘anti-white’. (Good Law Project, 31 May 2026)
A small charity that strives for racial equality is under attack from a far-right pundit.
Help them fight back
— Good Law Project (@goodlawproject.org) 7 June 2026 at 11:32
EDUCATION
Although we do not cover student protests for Palestine, we do track university administrative measures that deny the right to protest and authorise the use of force, or silence pro-Palestinian voices and display anti-Palestinian bias.
27 May: A report by former Labour MP Allan Millburn on the economic inactivity of young people finds that the UK is at risk of opening up a ‘generational fault line’ between the young and old without urgent measures to overhaul schools, the welfare system, health services and the labour market. (Guardian, 27 May)
HOUSING| POVERTY| WELFARE
31 May: A Guardian analysis reveals that 77 people died within 14 days of being released from prison in 2025, a 28 percent increase on the previous year and the highest since records began in 2021. Homelessness caused by the housing crisis, the lack of funding for mental health and substance abuse services, and an overstretched probation and prison system are lead causes, according to experts. (Guardian, 31 May)
7 June: Generations of children in England will grow up homeless as council housing lists would take 119 years to clear at the government’s current building rate, according to a new report by Shelter, which argues that local authorities are also struggling to build social homes because of the stranglehold of a £29bn housing debt. (Guardian, 7 June)
7 June: Northern MPs and council leaders accuse London councils of ‘ripping at the social fabric’ of deprived towns by illegally moving vulnerable homeless families, often those fleeing domestic violence or refugees, hundreds of miles away to cheaper accommodation in towns like Bolton, Blackpool and Hartlepool, a Guardian investigation finds. At least 1300 homeless families were moved out of London in the year to March 2025. (Guardian, 7 June 2026)
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
4 June: A review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, finds that anti-Jewish hatred is widespread in the NHS and recommends that staff’s freedom to display political symbols on their uniforms expressing support for Palestine or Israel, or attending demonstrations in uniform, be restricted and that the leaders of the service’s 205 health trusts in England are given antisemitism training. (Guardian, 4 June 2026; Wandsworth Times, 4 June 2026)
EMPLOYMENT| EXPLOITATION| INDUSTRIAL ACTION
3 June: Shabin Shaji, who came to the UK on a health and care visa from India after paying £17,000 to an agent for a job with Swan Care Solutions but spent a year being refused any work, is awarded nearly £30,000 in unpaid wages by an employment tribunal as Swan loses its licence to sponsor migrant workers – believed to be the first time a UK care business is ordered to hand over unpaid wages. (Guardian, 3 June 2026)
CULTURE| MEDIA| SPORT
While we cannot cover all incidents of racist abuse on sportspersons or their responses, we provide a summary of the most important incidents. For more information follow Kick it Out.
28 May: The National Secular Society raises concerns with the Charity Commission about the Bread of Life Community Church in Clacton, whose preacher and trustee Stephen Clayden, who has the support of local MP Nigel Farage, has said that Muslims want to take over the country. (Civil Society, 28 May 2026)
28 May: The British Museum postpones a lecture on ancient Israel and Judah, scheduled as part of the UK’s first ever Jewish culture month, after being warned of likely disruption of the event by registered attendees. Jewish Artists for Palestine, whose members were among those registered to attend, argue it is ‘entirely legitimate’ to expect a publicly-funded museum to host conversations reflecting different points of view, and that treating debate as a security concern ‘points to the event as a pro-Zionist propaganda exercise’. (Guardian, 28 May 2026)
28 May: A report by Appeals Centre Europe finds that social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are systematically failing to enforce their own hate speech policies, ruling that in 70 percent of cases, content left up should have been removed. TikTok fares worst, with ACE ruling against it in 83 percent of cases, followed by Instagram at 74 percent, Facebook at 61 percent and YouTube at 58 percent. (Euronews, 28 May 2026)
30 May: IPSO says it will investigate the Daily Express, Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Times for possible breaches of the editorial code in relation to their accusation that Southbank Centre chair Misan Harriman, who has spoken out for Palestine, spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories. (The New Arab, 30 May 2026)
RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT
For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.
31 May: The UK Sikh Federation says that after a Sikh man was found guilty of murdering student Henry Novak, the community has faced a ‘huge increase in hate crime’. (BBC News, 31 May 2026)
31 May: Police say they are treating as racially aggravated an attack on a Sikh family on 24 May at Willenhall Memorial Park, West Midlands, which left a 72-year-old pensioner with a broken cheekbone and a fractured shoulder and four other members of the family injured. Six teenagers have been arrested. (Birmingham Live, 31 May 2026; Sky News, 8 June 2026)
4 June: Northern Ireland Policing Board member Peter Osborne says that some ethnic minorities are so fearful of more racist attacks this summer that they are stockpiling food, while PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher says offensive murals, banners and posters have been erected in parts of Northern Ireland responding to the trial of the murderer of Henry Nowak. (Standard, 4 June 2026)
9 June: The Sikh Federation writes to the government supporting a judge-led public inquiry into the death of Henry Nowak. In an interview with the BBC, it says that the Sikh community has been ‘thrown under the bus’ and that there have been ‘at least a dozen’ stories of Sikhs in Southampton receiving physical or verbal abuse following the trial. (BBC News, 9 June 2026)
This calendar is researched by IRR staff and compiled by Sophie Chauhan, with the assistance of Graeme Atkinson, Margaret McAdam and Louis Ordish. Thanks also to ECRE, the Never Again Association, Research Against Global Authoritarianism and Stopwatch, whose regular updates on asylum, migration, far Right, racial violence, employment and policing issues are an invaluable source of information. Find these stories and all others since 2014 on our searchable database, the Register of Racism and Resistance.