Wes Streeting: ‘Reform is using propaganda reminiscent of the 1930s'

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Wes Streeting has condemned Nigel Farage, and other right-wing British politicians for their response to the murder of Henry Nowak.

The 18-year-old died after being stabbed in December 2025, when police handcuffed him under the belief he had racially abused another man.

Nowak's family asked that his death not be used to stoke hate and division in the UK, but Farage and others have been accused of doing exactly that.

Streeting says Farage is bringing UK politics to a place reminiscent of the 1930s, when extreme antisemitism was rife across Europe (most prevalent in Germany), and referred to the politics of Reform UK as "potent and dangerous".

"I think the choice for the country has been laid bare," Streeting tells Lewis Goodall.

"We can be a country that is like Henry Novak's father, who gave the most morally courageous and thoughtful and inspiring message whilst dealing with grief and a tragedy that I can barely comprehend."

He says he found police-cam footage of the incident, which was made public and shared widely online, "distressing and chilling".

"In the face of that grief, his father found the moral courage and clarity to say, I don't want this to be used to further division in our country," Streeting adds.

"By contrast, I saw Nigel Farage calling for rage in this country.

In a video statement Farage said it was natural for people to feel "pure cold rage" in response to Nowak's death.

‘Reform UK is dangerous and incendiary’

Streeting also criticised an advert run by Reform UK which took Kemi Badenoch's comments about the Nowak death out of context.

It took a line from the Tory leader in which she said "I don't want to hear about white lives matter", but removed her previous comment, in which she also stated "I don't want to hear about Black lives matter."

He accuses Reform UK of trying to portray Badenoch as a leader who only cares about Black people.

"That was dangerous. It was incendiary," Streeting says.

"This is the type of propaganda that is reminiscent of the 1930s and that is the choice for the country.

"You can have a politics that is decent, that is based on ideas, and that is about hope and possibility, or you can have a politics that is about rage, is about division and seeks to ferment and stir hatred to politically profit from it.

He describes Reform politics as "dangerous" and "nationalistic", and says "it has got to be beaten".

"We mainstream politicians have to see off this existential threat to our country," Streeting says.

"Nigel Farage is an English nationalist, and nationalism is a dangerous and potent political force."

‘Keir Starmer’s role in this is what worries me the most’

The former health secretary also calls for other Reform MPs including Richard Tice, and Tory defectors Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman to also be "challenged" on their rhetoric in the days since the details surrounding Nowak's death hit headlines.

"Suella Bravenman, I mean perhaps we shouldn't expect better of her," Streeting says.

"This is someone who claimed that Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of our country, could not be English because his family came from India."

"This is the danger of the moment that we're in."

Streeting is now set to spark a leadership challenge for Keir Starmer's job, and says he worries that if the PM continues in his role, he could help usher in a Reform government.

Starmer has been criticised for not taking tough enough measures to stop the rise of far-right sentiment in the UK.

"That's the thing that worries me more than anything else, and that is why, for all the grief it took, and the bereavement I felt, and the risk I felt, I couldn't stay in government," he says.

"It's why I just urge my colleagues to look at what's going on in the country, to look at the results we've just seen at the local elections, and to listen to the voters."

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