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Historical racial prejudice is returning within UK politics, which makes people feel very scared, Keir Starmer has stated, cautioning that divisive hard-right political tactics was “splitting the UK”.

Addressing Racist Rhetoric and Harmful Strategies

In conversation with doctor and media figure Amir Khan, the prime minister accused Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for enabling the revival of discriminatory and divisive political discourse “that frankly I thought we had dealt with years back”.

In the interview, broadcast on a popular morning program on Tuesday, Starmer also gave his strongest signal suggesting the limit on child benefits could be removed during the upcoming fiscal announcement in the coming weeks.

Commitment to Combat Poverty Among Children

Asked if he planned to eliminate the limit, as noted by advocacy groups is the biggest driver of poverty for children across Britain, Starmer said: “Let me be perfectly clear I am committed to drive child poverty down.”

He outlined measures ministers have already introduced such as free school meals, breakfast clubs, and child care support and emphasized: “We need to do more than that, and I assure you that I am dedicated to driving down child poverty.”

When pressed about if his remarks meant he intended to remove the two-child cap, Starmer stated “I would not say we are going to drive down child poverty without being sure that measures will be introduced several steps for that purpose”.

Clear Indications from Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves, provided a similarly clear signal on Monday when she told BBC Radio 5 Live that ultimately, a child should not be penalised if their parents are struggling financially”.

Ministers are reportedly planning to lift the limit entirely, after initially considering phasing it out for bigger households or richer ones. The Resolution Foundation projects this would cost about £3.5bn in the coming years.

Ideological Split and National Renewal

In the interview, Starmer explained the ideological split in the UK now existed between the government’s vision for renewal and Reform’s harmful divisiveness and other right-wing groups that are “tearing our country apart”.

“Some of the rhetoric currently circulating – discriminatory talk, divisive rhetoric – that many assumed had been addressed in the past is coming back into politics leaving people deeply afraid,” he stated.

“It is essential to oppose such discrimination, that division, and declare confidently that British identity is to have concern for others, requires rationality, entails tolerance and compassionate, which we value deeply.”

Reflecting Concerns from the Health Secretary

Starmer echoed sentiments used by Wes Streeting, who warned recently how a disturbing form of discrimination similar to the 1970s and 1980s was now alarmingly frequent once more with healthcare workers were bearing the brunt of this trend.

The health secretary said incidents of verbal and physical abuse based on people’s skin colour had become so frequent that it had become “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“We’ve got to call time on racism in this country and we’ve got to put such harmful attitudes that’s found expression in our country back in its box and once again create a climate in this country where it is not socially acceptable to hold racist views,” the Health Secretary stated.

Critical Decision for Voters

Starmer used his speech at the Labour party conference this autumn to draw political battle lines with his political opponents, stating that the public faced a pivotal moment.

He said he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country”, and argued that while the public had “reasonable” concerns regarding unauthorized immigration, there was an ethical boundary which some politicians had crossed.

The PM vowed to “fight” those claiming that people who were not white were not truly British and that households who had lived in the UK for generations must be removed, saying people promoting such views constituted “opposed to the country’s progress”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hostility, that goes beyond concern: it’s criminal. This party – this great party – is proud of our flags, but if they are displayed with hateful messages, telling a Chinese takeaway owner to ‘go home’, that’s not pride; that’s racism,” he told activists.