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Historical racial prejudice has come back to British politics, which creates very scared, Keir Starmer emphasized, alerting that polarizing hard-right political tactics are “tearing our country apart”.

Confronting Discriminatory Rhetoric and Harmful Politics

In conversation with doctor and media figure Amir Khan, the prime minister pointed to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for enabling the revival to discriminatory and divisive political discourse which many believed was resolved decades ago”.

During the discussion, which aired on a popular morning program this week, the PM also gave his strongest signal that the two-child benefit cap would be lifted during the upcoming fiscal announcement in the coming weeks.

Commitment to Combat Child Poverty

Asked if he planned to eliminate the limit, as noted by advocacy groups is a major cause of poverty for children in the UK, the Prime Minister said: “I want to state unequivocally I will strive to reduce child poverty.”

He outlined measures the government has already launched such as free school meals, morning meal programs, and childcare and emphasized: “We must go beyond these efforts, and I can look you in the eye and tell you I will personally focus on reducing child poverty.”

Pressed on whether his comments meant he would lift the two-child limit, Starmer said he “wouldn’t be telling you we plan to reduce poverty among children if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking a number of measures in order to do so”.

Strong Signals from the Chancellor

The Chancellor, provided an equally strong hint earlier this week stating to BBC Radio 5 Live that finally, a child should not be penalised due to their family’s financial situation”.

Government officials are reportedly planning to scrap the restriction fully, after initially considering ways to taper it for bigger households or richer ones. An economic thinktank has estimated this would cost about £3.5bn by the end of the decade.

Ideological Split and Country’s Revival

In the interview, the Prime Minister explained the ideological split in the UK now existed between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” and Reform’s harmful divisiveness and others on the right that are “dividing the nation”.

“Parts of the discourse being used – racist rhetoric, divisive rhetoric – that many assumed had been addressed long ago is returning to politics and citizens are very scared,” he said.

“It is essential to oppose to that racism, that divisiveness, and declare confidently that to be British means showing empathy, requires rationality, entails tolerance and kindness, and this is our pride.”

Reflecting Concerns from the Health Secretary

Starmer mirrored sentiments expressed by Wes Streeting, who warned recently how a disturbing form of discrimination reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s was now alarmingly frequent again and that NHS staff were facing the worst of it.

The health secretary said occurrences of verbal and physical abuse targeting individuals due to race now happened so often that it was now “acceptable to express racism”.

“We must end to discrimination in this country and we’ve got to put such harmful attitudes that’s found expression nationally where it belongs and reestablish an environment across Britain where it is not socially acceptable to be racist,” the Health Secretary said.

Critical Decision for Voters

The Prime Minister used his speech at the Labour party conference in September to outline clear divisions with his political opponents, stating that voters confronted a pivotal moment.

He said he was involved in a “fight for the soul of our country”, and argued that while voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, there was “a moral line” that Farage and others had overstepped.

Starmer vowed to confront anyone claiming that people who were not white could not be English or British and that families residing in the UK for generations must be removed, saying people promoting such views were “opposed to the country’s progress”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hostility, that is not expressing concern: it is illegal. Our political movement is proud of our flags, yet if they are painted with hateful messages, telling a Chinese takeaway owner to ‘go home’, that’s not pride; that’s racism,” he informed activists.