Free Speech Union General Secretary and Policy and Research Director attend Parliamentary roundtable on free speech and policing in the wake of Henry Nowak's murder

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

20 July 2026

Last Tuesday evening, General Secretary and founder of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, and David Rose, Director of Policy and Research at the Free Speech Union, attended an important roundtable hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Freedom of Speech.

The roundtable was an opportunity to discuss policing and free speech in the wake of the tragic murder of eighteen-year-old student Henry Nowak in Southampton.

The panel included Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, Chair of the APPG and Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden, former Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation and FSU member Rick Prior, and GB News reporter Charlie Peters. There were also powerful contributions from Baroness Foster of Oxton DBE, Baroness Fox of Buckley, and Lord Jackson of Peterborough.

The Henry Nowak case has exposed with especial starkness a problem that the FSU has long been warning about: in an attempt to avoid appearing "institutionally racist", the police have swung so far in the opposite direction that they now discriminate against white people, particularly white working-class men. As the document known as the Police Anti-Racism Commitment issued in 2025 puts it, the police should no longer be "colourblind", nor "police everyone the same".

Correcting this over-correction is now a matter of critical national importance. Unless it is addressed, the British public will lose confidence in the police, and policing by consent will begin to break down. This is a national emergency.

The ideological capture of the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) must be undone. two-tier policing must end, with people treated equally before the law, rather than differently on the basis of EDI directives enshrined in the NPCC Race Action Plan.

Read the Free Speech Union's recent briefing, With Fear and Favour, here.