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Decades-old racial prejudice is returning within UK the political arena, and it creates fearful, Keir Starmer warned, alerting that divisive hard-right politics are “tearing our country apart”.

Tackling Racist Language and Harmful Politics

Speaking to GP and TV personality a well-known TV doctor, Starmer accused the Reform UK party for enabling the revival of racist and divisive politics which many believed was resolved years back”.

In the interview, broadcast on ITV’s Lorraine show on Tuesday, the PM also gave a clear indication that the two-child benefit cap might be scrapped during the upcoming fiscal announcement in the coming weeks.

Promise to Combat Child Poverty

When questioned if he would scrap this restriction, as noted by advocacy groups is the biggest driver of poverty for children in the UK, the Prime Minister responded: “Let me be perfectly clear I am determined to lower poverty rates for kids.”

He listed steps ministers have already introduced such as no-cost school lunches, breakfast clubs, and childcare and emphasized: “Further action is necessary, and I assure you that I am personally committed on reducing childhood poverty.”

When pressed about if his comments meant he intended to remove the two-child cap, he said “It would be misleading to claim we are going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will implement various actions in order to do so”.

Clear Signals from Rachel Reeves

The Chancellor, gave an equally strong hint earlier this week when she told a national radio station that ultimately, children must not be punished because their parents don’t have very much money”.

Government officials are getting ready to lift the limit entirely, having originally looked at phasing it out either for very large families or wealthier families. An economic thinktank has estimated this would cost roughly £3.5 billion by 2029-30.

Political Divide and Country’s Revival

During the discussion, Starmer said the political divide currently in Britain was between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” and Reform’s harmful divisiveness and other right-wing groups who were “splitting the UK”.

“Parts of the discourse we’re hearing – discriminatory talk, divisive rhetoric – that frankly I thought we had dealt with long ago is returning to politics and citizens are deeply afraid,” he said.

“We must confront to that racism, that division, and declare confidently that British identity means showing empathy, requires rationality, is to be tolerant and compassionate, and this is our pride.”

Reflecting Warnings from the Health Secretary

The prime minister mirrored sentiments used by Wes Streeting, who cautioned recently that a disturbing form of discrimination reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s had become alarmingly frequent again and that NHS staff were primary targets of this trend.

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

“We’ve got to call time to discrimination across the UK and we’ve got to put such harmful attitudes that has emerged in our country where it belongs and once again create an environment in this country where racism is unacceptable to hold racist views,” the Health Secretary stated.

Defining Choice for the Public

Starmer used his speech during a major political gathering in September to draw political battle lines between himself and Farage, saying that voters confronted a crucial decision.

The prime minister explained he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country”, noting although the public had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, existed an ethical boundary which some politicians had crossed.

Starmer pledged to confront anyone claiming that people who were not white could not be English or British and that households who had lived in the UK for generations should be deported, stating people promoting such views were “an enemy of national renewal”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hatred, that goes beyond concern: it is illegal. 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 is pure discrimination,” he told supporters.