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Long-standing racial prejudice is returning within UK the political arena, which leaves citizens deeply uneasy, Keir Starmer warned, alerting that polarizing hard-right politics was “splitting the UK”.

Addressing Racist Language and Harmful Strategies

Speaking to doctor and media figure Amir Khan, the prime minister accused Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for enabling the revival to discriminatory and divisive politics that seemed a thing of the past long ago”.

In the interview, broadcast on ITV’s Lorraine show this week, the PM provided a clear indication suggesting the limit on child benefits might be scrapped during the upcoming fiscal announcement later this month.

Commitment to Reduce Poverty Among Children

When questioned if he would scrap the limit, as noted by advocacy groups is the biggest driver of poverty for children in the UK, Starmer responded: “I can tell you in no uncertain terms I am determined to reduce child poverty.”

He outlined steps the government has already launched including no-cost school lunches, breakfast clubs, and child care support but added: “We must go beyond these efforts, and I can look you in the eye and tell you I am personally committed on reducing childhood poverty.”

Pressed about if his remarks indicated he intended to remove the two-child cap, Starmer said he “wouldn’t be telling you we are going to drive down poverty among children unless I was certain that measures will be introduced a number of measures for that purpose”.

Strong Indications from the Chancellor

The Chancellor, provided a similarly clear signal earlier this week stating to a national radio station that finally, children must not be punished due to their family’s financial situation”.

Ministers are understood to be preparing to remove the cap completely, after initially considering gradual removal for bigger households or richer ones. An economic thinktank projects the expense would be about £3.5bn by 2029-30.

Political Divide and National Renewal

In the interview, Starmer said the political divide in the UK now existed between the government’s vision for renewal and Reform’s harmful divisiveness and others on the right that are “dividing the nation”.

“Certain language currently circulating – racist rhetoric, polarizing language – that many assumed had been addressed long ago has reemerged in political debate leaving people very scared,” he said.

“It is essential to oppose such discrimination, that divisiveness, and we have to proudly say that British identity means showing empathy, requires rationality, entails tolerance and compassionate, which we value deeply.”

Reflecting Warnings from Wes Streeting

The prime minister mirrored language expressed by the Health Secretary, who warned earlier this month that a disturbing form of discrimination similar to past decades was now worryingly commonplace once more and that NHS staff were facing the worst of it.

The health secretary said incidents of verbal and physical abuse targeting individuals due to race had become so frequent that it was now “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“We’ve got to call time on racism in this country and we’ve got to put that ugly racist sentiment that’s found expression nationally where it belongs and reestablish an environment across Britain where racism is unacceptable to be racist,” Streeting said.

Defining Choice for Voters

Starmer spoke at the Labour party conference in September to outline clear divisions with his political opponents, saying that the public confronted a crucial decision.

The prime minister said he was engaged in a struggle for the nation’s identity, noting that while voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, there was “a moral line” which some politicians had overstepped.

Starmer pledged to “fight” anyone claiming that people who were not white did not belong and that households residing in Britain for years must be removed, stating people promoting such views were “opposed to the country’s progress”.

“If you incite racist violence and hostility, that is not expressing concern: it’s criminal. Our political movement is proud of our flags, but if they are displayed alongside graffiti, telling a Chinese takeaway owner to leave the country, that is not patriotism; that’s racism,” he informed activists.