Parliamentary 'bickering' disrespectful to Henry Nowak and his family, says mother of Jimmy Mizen
Margaret Mizen, whose son bled to death after being struck with a glass baking dish in 2008, tells LBC how "in-house arguing" among MPs has cast a shadow over Henry Nowak's memory
The mother of Jimmy Mizen has spoken out over politicians' comments in the wake of Henry Nowak's murder, insisting their behaviour is "beyond words" and disrespectful to his grieving family.
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Margaret Mizen, the mother of murdered teenager Jimmy Mizen, has experienced the crippling grief of losing a child first hand after her son bled to death at the Three Cooks Bakery in Burnt Ash Hill.
The incident saw the 16-year-old fatally struck with a glass baking dish weilded by Jake Fahri in 2008, which shattered on impact.
Mrs Mizen has now told LBC that "in-house arguing" among politicians is "beyond words" and disrespectful to Henry's parents, who previously called for calm in the wake of the tragedy.
Henry Nowak was stabbed to death in December with a ceremonial knife by Vickrum Digwa, 23. He was then handcuffed by police and bled to death.
Read more: My friend's murder was weaponised by politicians. Henry Nowak's family deserve better
She said: "The in-house arguing within Parliament is beyond words. For me, that's worse than anything.
"The parents have called for calm, and obviously it hasn't been respected, but it hasn't been respected anywhere and certainly not amongst our politicians."
Speaking outside the court earlier this week, Henry Nowak's father Mark said: "We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension,"
"We want his story to make our streets safer for everyone."
Ms Mizen also called on politicians to stop arguing and take real action on knife crime.
"There is a family grieving beyond words, and they have to find a way of coping with that for the rest of their lives. The politicians need to stop arguing and we need to look at how this happened", she said.
"I've heard on the news again that the politicians are going to look at knife crime and really do something about it. They've been saying exactly the same words since I lost my son, and still it's happening."
She also shared that her "heart is with the family" of Henry Nowak and sent them love in dealing with that will be a 'very difficult time.'
"My heart is with them, and I will send them all my love. This is a really difficult time for them, and they're the ones we need to be thinking of, not these politicians making silly comments."
Her comments come as a survivor and friend of a man who was murdered during the 2019 London Bridge Terror attack has called out politicians and campaigners for exploiting the suffering of victims like Henry Nowak to push their own narratives.
In an opinion piece for LBC, Claudia Vince wrote that the public conversation around Henry Nowak's death is 'strikingly' similar to rhetoric around the murder of her friend Jack Merritt.
Jack, 25, was fatally stabbed along with Saskia Jones, 23, by convicted terrorist Usman Khan during a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmongers' Hall in London on November 29 2019.
The event was organised by Cambridge University's Learning Together programme, of which Jack was a course co-ordinator and Saskia was a volunteer.
Ms Vince wrote, "What has stayed with me since November 2019 is not the political argument that followed my friend Jack Merritt’s death, but his father’s refusal to let it become one.
"David Merritt was clear in the days after the attack. He said his son would have been “livid” at his death being used to advance political agendas. He warned against it becoming a pretext for causes Jack himself opposed. In a moment of profound grief, he issued a simple plea: do not weaponise loss."
Ms Vince said while Henry and Jack's cases were in different circumstances, society must "recognise a pattern" in how the public collectively responds to tragedy.
"Too often, the suffering of victims and bereaved families is exploited to lend moral weight to arguments they did not choose to make", she wrote.
Nigel Farage faced huge backlash from MPs yesterday including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, as well as Baroness Lawrence and London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, after urging people to react strongly to the murder of Henry Nowak.
Following the sentencing of Digwa this week, who has been jailed for life wth a minimum serve of 21 years for the stabbing, the Reform leader has claimed the UK is guilty of a "two-tier" policing system which sees different rules for different ethnicities.