An ‘Anti-Woke’ police chief says more must be done to dispel the UK’s two-tier policing perception after the horrific murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak. And Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson said of his officers: “We won’t take the knee, we’re not going to wear rainbow coloured lanyards, we’re not going to dance around with environmental protesters.”

Sir Stephen Watson spoke as he took to the streets to watch his officers, armed with 14-kilo ‘wham rams’, smash down a stubborn door during a raid in Woodley, Stockport. Henry Nowak was fatally stabbed in Southampton in December by Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been racially abused and had acted in self-defence.

Digwa was jailed for life on June 1, with a minimum term of 21 years, but the release of police bodycam footage showing Nowak being handcuffed as he lay dying has led to intense scrutiny of the police response, sparking claims of ‘anti-white’ two-tier policing.

Sir Stephen said when it comes to his own force, he does not believe claims of two-tier policing are justified, but added: “I recognise we need to work hard to overturn it.

“We have to acknowledge the public perceive there to be two-tier policing and whether that be historically people from minority communities or in the aftermath of the tragic Henry Novak case, I think people perceive it now from different quarters and across the board.”

He said this meant GMP needed to double down on the message that the force treated everybody fairly, “but without fear or favour”.

He added: “Everybody is equal before the law, and I do think there is something for wider policing to understand that we have, more assiduously, to stamp our mark on what impartiality looks like.

“I think we have, from time to time, strayed into difficult and contentious areas.

“We’ve uncritically adopted language that persuades people that perhaps we are not as impartial as we should be and so, in a sense, I see the perception.”

Since Henry Nowak’s murder trial, there has been particular scrutiny of a National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) anti-racism commitment, which states that ensuring racial equality in policing “does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘colour blind'”.

The NPCC said it was reviewing the wording after opposition politicians pointed to it as evidence of unequal standards in policing.

Sir Stephen, originally from Warrington, grew up in Rhodesia before he and other British families left in 1981 after Robert Mugabe came to power, completing his education in South Africa.

He initially pondered a career in the Royal Navy, like his father and grandfather before him, but became a police officer after speaking to GMP bobbies near his home in Prestwich.

After five years in his Chief Constable role, Sir Stephen also accepted he has earned his nickname of ‘Britain’s anti-woke Chief Constable’ who won’t take the knee for anyone – except perhaps God and Mrs Watson.

Sir Stephen said: “It’s for others to label me as they see fit, but in a sense, it almost proves the point, because I would urge upon everybody not to get involved in the cultural wars.

“And the reason why I was declared the ‘anti-woke Chief Constable’ (is because) I had the temerity to say ‘no, we won’t take the knee, no, we’re not going to wear rainbow coloured lanyards, no, we’re not going to dance around with environmental protesters’.

“Why? Because we’re the police. So, in a sense, asserting professional, impartial policing without fear or favour has got me branded as anti-woke.

“That seems to suggest to me that we should never play out in this particular space, because it’s a mad world. What we need to do is plough that impartial furrow right down the middle.”