Sikhs in UK reconsider Reform support after Henry Nowak murder row

A growing number of British Sikhs who backed Reform UK at the last general election say they are rethinking that support, after the party’s response to the murder of Henry Nowak sparked fury within the community and beyond.

What happened and why it matters

Henry Nowak, a 19-year-old, was stabbed to death in Wolverhampton earlier this month. A teenager of Sikh background has been charged in connection with the killing. Reform politicians, including several prominent figures close to Nigel Farage, moved quickly to amplify the case online — framing it in ways that many Sikhs say misrepresented the community and fanned racial tensions already inflamed by last summer’s riots.

Community leaders described the reaction as reckless. “It’s like throwing petrol on the fire,” said one gurdwara trustee in the West Midlands, who asked not to be named. “We’ve had young men receiving threats. Families are scared to go out.”

That phrase — petrol on the fire — has since spread rapidly through Sikh community WhatsApp groups and social media channels, becoming a kind of shorthand for the frustration many feel.

A community that had moved toward Reform

The shift matters politically. At the 2024 general election, polling and community surveys suggested that somewhere between 15 and 22 percent of British Sikhs — a community of roughly 700,000 people, concentrated heavily in the West Midlands, London, and parts of the South East — either voted Reform or seriously considered doing so. That was a notable swing from traditional Labour allegiance, driven largely by concerns about crime, immigration, and a sense that the mainstream parties had stopped listening.

Reform had actively courted that vote. The party ran several Sikh candidates and made pointed appeals to shared values around community, hard work, and law and order.

But the Nowak case has exposed just how fragile that relationship was.

Anger and a sense of betrayal

Several Sikh community organisations issued statements in the days after Nowak’s death, specifically condemning what they called the “weaponisation” of a tragedy for political gain. A petition circulated through the Sikh Federation UK called on Reform to formally apologise and retract what it described as misleading social media posts. By Wednesday morning it had collected over 4,200 signatures.

Reform has not issued an apology. A party spokesperson said the party stood by its members’ right to raise concerns about violent crime and that it remained committed to representing all British communities equally.

That response has satisfied almost no one inside the Sikh community who was already angry.

What comes next

Community leaders say they plan to meet with MPs from multiple parties over the coming weeks to discuss both the handling of the Nowak case and the broader question of how British Sikhs are represented — and sometimes misrepresented — in political debate. Some are openly talking about a more organised bloc voting strategy ahead of local elections next May.

Whether Reform can repair the damage before then remains deeply uncertain. And right now, very few people in Britain’s Sikh communities seem inclined to give the party the benefit of the doubt.