Minister dismisses ‘two-tier justice’ claim in light of Henry Nowak tragedy as ‘slur’ on police – UK politics live

Good morning. The most interesting event of the day may well turn out to be one taking place late tonight, when Andy Burnham , the Labour candidate for Makerfield and potential next PM, takes part in a BBC byelection Question Times special. Yesterday Burnham said that at some point today he would give a more considered response to the Henry Nowak murder, and the issues it has raised about policing and race equality. It is not clear yet whether we will get that response on QT, or before. But this morning the government seems to be firming up its opposition to those claiming that what happened to Nowak was evidence of “two-tier justice”. Reform UK is the main party using this phrase, but some Tories have made the same argument. Yesterday Keir Starmer said he did not accept that Britain has two-tier policing. This morning Lucy Rigby , the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been doing an interview round, and she told Sky News this allegation was a “slur” on the police. Asked about the claim, she said: double quotation mark Fundamentally, I think that is a slur on the thousands of police officers that go out to work every day, putting themselves in harm’s way to serve the public, to try and prevent crime, and to keep us all safe. The suggestion that we have two - tier policing, which suggests at its heart that the police are on a sort of systemic basis pushing the interests of one group above another – I genuinely think is a slur on all those police officers that are serving this country day and night, seven days a week. Here is our overnight story on the Nowak controversy, by Vikram Dodd , Peter Walker and Steven Morris. Police chief warns anti-white bias claims could drive UK policing ‘back to 60s’ Read more Here is the agenda for the day. 9.30am: Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons. 9.30am: The Department for Education publishes annual figures on the number of pupils and staff in schools. Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in north Yorkshire, before attending the mayoral council, a summit with mayors from England. 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. Lunchtime: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, is speaking at a lobby lunch. 2pm: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, takes questions from MSPs. Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Warwickshire. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X , but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if