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Decades-old racism is resurfacing within UK the political arena, which makes people feel fearful, Keir Starmer has stated, cautioning that divisive hard-right politics was “tearing our country apart”.

Addressing Discriminatory Language and Harmful Strategies

Speaking with GP and TV personality Amir Khan, the prime minister accused the Reform UK party for enabling a return to discriminatory and divisive political discourse “that frankly I thought we had dealt with long ago”.

In the interview, which aired on ITV’s Lorraine show this week, the PM also gave a clear indication that the two-child benefit cap would be lifted in the budget in the coming weeks.

Promise to Combat Child Poverty

Asked if he would scrap the limit, as noted by advocacy groups is a major cause of poverty for children in the UK, Starmer said: “Let me be perfectly clear I am committed to drive child poverty down.”

He outlined steps the government has already launched including no-cost school lunches, breakfast clubs, and child care support and emphasized: “We need to do more than that, and I pledge that I am dedicated to cutting child poverty.”

When pressed on whether his comments meant he would lift the two-child limit, Starmer stated “I would not say we aim to lower child poverty unless I was certain that measures will be introduced a number of measures to achieve this”.

Clear Signals from the Chancellor

The Chancellor, gave an equally strong hint earlier this week stating to BBC Radio 5 Live that ultimately, no child should suffer if their parents are struggling financially”.

Government officials are reportedly planning to scrap the restriction fully, having originally looked at gradual removal either for very large families or richer ones. An economic thinktank has estimated the expense would be about £3.5bn by the end of the decade.

Political Divide and Country’s Revival

In the interview, Starmer explained the ideological split currently in Britain was between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” versus Reform’s harmful divisiveness and others on the right that are “dividing the nation”.

“Certain language being used – racist rhetoric, divisive rhetoric – that many assumed had been addressed long ago is returning to politics leaving people deeply afraid,” he stated.

“It is essential to oppose such discrimination, that division, and we have to proudly say that to be British means showing empathy, is to be reasonable, entails tolerance and compassionate, and this is our pride.”

Reflecting Warnings from the Health Secretary

The prime minister mirrored language expressed by the Health Secretary, who cautioned earlier this month how a disturbing form of discrimination similar to the 1970s and 1980s had become alarmingly frequent once more and that NHS staff were primary targets of it.

The health secretary noted occurrences of verbal and physical abuse based on people’s skin colour had become so frequent that it was now “acceptable to express racism”.

“We must end to discrimination across the UK and we need to place that ugly racist sentiment that has emerged nationally where it belongs and reestablish a climate in this country that rejects racism to hold racist views,” the Health Secretary said.

Critical Decision for Voters

Starmer spoke during a major political gathering in September to outline political battle lines between himself and Farage, saying that voters confronted a crucial decision.

The prime minister said he was involved in a struggle for the nation’s identity, and argued although voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, there was an ethical boundary which some politicians had overstepped.

The PM pledged to challenge those who argued that people who were not white were not truly British and that families who had lived in Britain for years should be deported, saying those advocating these ideas constituted “opposed to the country’s progress”.

“If you incite racial attacks and hatred, that goes beyond concern: it is illegal. Our political movement values national symbols, but if they are displayed with hateful messages, targeting a business owner to leave the country, that’s not pride; that’s racism,” he informed activists.