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Long-standing racism has come back within UK politics, and it creates deeply uneasy, Keir Starmer warned, alerting that divisive hard-right politics are “tearing our country apart”.

Addressing Discriminatory Language and Harmful Strategies

Speaking with doctor and media figure Amir Khan, Starmer accused the Reform UK party for enabling the revival to racist and divisive politics “that frankly I thought we had dealt with long ago”.

In the interview, which aired on a popular morning program on Tuesday, Starmer also gave his strongest signal suggesting the limit on child benefits could be removed in the budget in the coming weeks.

Commitment to Combat Child Poverty

Asked if he planned to eliminate the limit, which charities have said is a major cause of child poverty across Britain, the Prime Minister responded: “I want to state unequivocally I will strive to drive child poverty down.”

He listed measures ministers have already introduced including no-cost school lunches, breakfast clubs, and childcare but added: “We must go beyond these efforts, and I assure you and tell you I am dedicated to cutting childhood poverty.”

When pressed about if his remarks meant he intended to remove the two-child limit, Starmer said he “wouldn’t be telling you we plan to reduce poverty among children without being sure that we will implement several steps to achieve this”.

Clear Signals from the Chancellor

Rachel Reeves, provided an equally strong hint on Monday when she told BBC Radio 5 Live how finally, no child should suffer due to their family’s financial situation”.

Government officials are reportedly planning to scrap the restriction fully, having originally looked at ways to taper it either for very large families or richer ones. An economic thinktank has estimated this would cost roughly £3.5 billion by 2029-30.

Political Divide and National Renewal

In the interview, the Prime Minister explained the political divide currently in Britain was between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” versus “the toxic division of Reform” and others on the right that are “tearing our country apart”.

“Some of the rhetoric we’re hearing – racist rhetoric, polarizing language – which I believed had been addressed decades ago is returning to politics leaving people fearful,” he stated.

“We must confront to that racism, that divisiveness, and declare confidently that to be British is to have concern for others, requires rationality, entails tolerance and kindness, and this is our pride.”

Echoing Concerns from Wes Streeting

The prime minister echoed language used by Wes Streeting, who cautioned recently that a disturbing form of discrimination reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s had become worryingly commonplace again and that NHS staff were facing the worst of this trend.

The health secretary noted incidents of both verbal and physical attacks targeting individuals due to race had become so frequent that it was now “acceptable to express racism”.

“We’ve got to call time on racism across the UK and we need to place that ugly racist sentiment that’s found expression in our country back in its box and reestablish a climate across Britain where racism is unacceptable to hold racist views,” Streeting said.

Critical Decision for Voters

Starmer spoke at the Labour party conference this autumn to outline political battle lines with his political opponents, stating that voters faced a crucial decision.

The prime minister said he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country”, and argued that while voters expressed valid worries about illegal migration, there was an ethical boundary that Farage and others had overstepped.

The PM vowed to confront those who argued that non-white individuals could not be English or British and that families who had lived in the UK for generations must be removed, saying those advocating these ideas constituted “against national unity”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hostility, that is not expressing concern: it’s criminal. Our political movement values national symbols, yet if they are painted with hateful messages, telling a Chinese takeaway owner to leave the country, that is not patriotism; that’s racism,” he told activists.