BBC Host Apologizes to Nigel Farage After Falsely Attributing Racially Charged Henry Nowak Quote to Him
BBC “Newsnight” host Matt Chorley has somewhat apologized to conservative Reform U.K. party leader Nigel Farage for smearing him over what the politician said following the sentencing of Henry Novak’s murderer.
“I owe Nigel Farage an apology,” Chorley wrote on the social media platform X early Wednesday morning. “During last night’s ‘Newsnight’ we covered the murder of Henry Nowak and the political reaction to the case, including discussing Nigel Farage’s comments about ‘pure, cold rage.'”
“However I referred to ‘white cold rage’. This was a mistake on my part, a misremembering of the quote. It didn’t change the content of the interview but I should have got the quote right. I apologise to Nigel Farage for this,” he added.
Note what Chorley wrote about how his “mistake … didn’t change the content of the interview.” It appeared the leftist BBC host was merely apologizing for a technical mistake while still sticking to his disdain for Farage.
I owe Nigel Farage an apology.
During last night’s Newsnight we covered the murder of Henry Nowak and the political reaction to the case, including discussing Nigel Farage’s comments about “pure, cold rage”.
However I referred to “white cold rage”. This was a mistake on my…
— Matt Chorley (@MattChorley) June 3, 2026
Chorley’s “mistake” concerned remarks Farage made after Novak’s murderer, Vikrum Singh Digwa, was sentenced on June 1 to life in prison with a minimum of 21 years.
During an emergency live address filmed the morning after the sentencing, Farage praised Novak’s family for their “dignified” response to his death — they’d called for the public to avoid division and instead focus on knife crime — but urged everybody else to eschew dignity in favor of unbridled rage.
“Henry’s family have responded to this in just the most extraordinarily dignified way, but I suggest the rest of us respond to this with pure cold rage,” Farage insisted.
“This is wrong. All the values and standards of living in a free country where everybody is judged equally before the law have been trashed and thrown away,” he added.
His words quickly went viral on X:
The fear of being called racist was greater than dealing with Henry Nowak’s murder.
We should respond to this with pure cold rage.
Britain’s historic way of life is being thrown away. pic.twitter.com/4N6vL76q1F
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 2, 2026
Farage’s simple statement prompted a flurry of backlash, including from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which in turn led to the BBC covering the backlash by having Chorley question conservative leader Kemi Badenoch about it.
During a late-evening June 2 broadcast of the BBC’s “Newsnight,” Chorley repeatedly stated while interviewing Badenoch that Farage had urged the public to respond with “white cold rage.”
“Nigel Farage has said in response to this, ‘we should respond to this with white, cold rage,'” Chorley told Badenoch before asking for her take on the Reform leader:
🚨The BBC had just sunk to a new low.
On Newsnight last night, presenter Matt Chorley claimed Nigel Farage said people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “white cold rage”.
Nigel DID NOT SAY THIS.
The insertion of the word “white” by the BBC is obviously… pic.twitter.com/OwFxXNUy5N
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) June 3, 2026
This “mistake” prompted a new flurry of backlash, except this time the backlash was directed at Chorley and the BBC, not Farage.
The BBC for its part issued an apology late Friday.
“In an interview about the murder of 18 year old Henry Nowak, we mistakenly quoted the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as saying people should respond to his death with a ‘white, cold rage,'” the apology read.
“To be clear Mr Farage actually said ‘pure, cold rage’ as had been stated earlier in the programme and we apologise to him for this error. The programme has been removed from BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds,” the apology continued.
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