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Decades-old racial prejudice is resurfacing to UK politics, and it leaves citizens deeply uneasy, Keir Starmer has stated, cautioning how divisive hard-right political tactics was “tearing our country apart”.

Confronting Discriminatory Rhetoric and Harmful Strategies

In conversation to GP and TV personality a well-known TV doctor, the prime minister pointed to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK of overseeing the revival to racist and divisive politics that seemed a thing of the past decades ago”.

During the discussion, broadcast on a popular morning program on Tuesday, Starmer also gave his strongest signal suggesting the limit on child benefits would be lifted during the upcoming fiscal announcement later this month.

Promise to Combat Poverty Among Children

Asked if he would scrap this restriction, which charities have said is the biggest driver of child poverty across Britain, the Prime Minister said: “I want to state unequivocally I will strive to lower poverty rates for kids.”

He listed measures the government has already launched such as free school meals, breakfast clubs, and childcare but added: “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 intended to remove the two-child cap, Starmer said “It would be misleading to claim we aim to lower child poverty without being sure that we will implement several steps for that purpose”.

Strong 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 due to their family’s financial situation”.

Ministers are getting ready 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 in the coming years.

Political Divide and Country’s Revival

During the discussion, the Prime Minister said the political divide currently in Britain existed between the government’s vision for renewal versus Reform’s harmful divisiveness and others on the right that are “dividing the nation”.

“Parts of the discourse currently circulating – discriminatory talk, polarizing language – that frankly I thought was resolved long ago is coming back into politics 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, is to be reasonable, entails tolerance and compassionate, and we’re proud of that.”

Echoing Warnings from Wes Streeting

The prime minister echoed language expressed by the Health Secretary, who warned recently how a disturbing form of discrimination reminiscent of past decades had become worryingly commonplace again and that healthcare workers were primary targets of it.

The health secretary noted occurrences of verbal and physical abuse targeting individuals due to race now happened so often that it was now “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“We’ve got to call time to discrimination across the UK and we need to place such harmful attitudes that has emerged in our country back in its box and reestablish an environment in this country that rejects racism to be racist,” Streeting 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, saying that voters faced a pivotal moment.

He explained he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country”, and argued that while voters expressed valid worries regarding unauthorized immigration, there was an ethical boundary that Farage and others had crossed.

Starmer pledged to “fight” anyone claiming that non-white individuals did not belong and that households residing in the UK for generations should be deported, saying those advocating these ideas were “against national unity”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hatred, that is not expressing concern: it is illegal. Our political movement values national symbols, yet if they are painted with hateful messages, targeting a business owner to leave the country, that is not patriotism; that’s racism,” he told supporters.