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Decades-old racism is returning to British politics, which leaves citizens deeply uneasy, Keir Starmer emphasized, alerting that polarizing far-right political tactics was “tearing our country apart”.

Confronting Discriminatory Language and Divisive Politics

Speaking to doctor and media figure Amir Khan, Starmer accused Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for enabling a return of discriminatory and divisive politics “that frankly I thought we had dealt with years back”.

During the discussion, broadcast on a popular morning program on Tuesday, the PM provided a clear indication suggesting the limit on child benefits might be scrapped in the budget in the coming weeks.

Promise to Combat Child Poverty

When questioned whether he planned to eliminate the limit, which charities have said is the biggest driver of child poverty in the UK, Starmer responded: “I want to state unequivocally I am determined to reduce child poverty.”

He listed measures the government has already launched such as no-cost school lunches, morning meal programs, and child care support but added: “We must go beyond these efforts, and I can look you in the eye that I will personally focus on reducing child poverty.”

When pressed about if his remarks indicated he intended to remove the two-child cap, Starmer said “It would be misleading to claim we aim to lower child poverty unless I was certain that we will implement several steps to achieve this”.

Strong Signals from the Chancellor

The Chancellor, provided an equally strong hint on Monday when she told a national radio station how “in the end, children must not be punished if their parents are struggling financially”.

Ministers are reportedly planning to remove the cap completely, having originally looked at gradual removal for bigger households or richer ones. The Resolution Foundation has estimated this would cost about £3.5bn in the coming years.

Political Divide and Country’s Revival

During the discussion, Starmer explained the political divide in the UK now existed between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” versus Reform’s harmful divisiveness and other right-wing groups that are “tearing our country apart”.

“Some of the rhetoric being used – discriminatory talk, polarizing language – which I believed was resolved long ago has reemerged in political debate and it makes people feel very scared,” he said.

“We have to stand up such discrimination, that division, and we have to proudly say that British identity is to have concern for others, requires rationality, is to be tolerant and compassionate, which we value deeply.”

Echoing Warnings from the Health Secretary

Starmer echoed sentiments used by Wes Streeting, who warned recently how 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 said incidents of both verbal and physical attacks targeting individuals due to race now happened so often that it was now “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“We’ve got to call time on racism across the UK and we need to place that ugly racist sentiment that’s found expression nationally back in its box and once again create a climate in this country where racism is unacceptable to hold racist views,” the Health Secretary said.

Critical Decision for Voters

Starmer used his speech during a major political gathering in September to draw political battle lines with his political opponents, saying that the public confronted a crucial decision.

He said he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country”, noting although voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, existed an ethical boundary that Farage and others had crossed.

Starmer pledged to “fight” those who argued that people who were not white 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 “opposed to the country’s progress”.

“Encouraging racial attacks and hatred, that goes beyond concern: it’s criminal. Our political movement values national symbols, yet if they are painted alongside graffiti, targeting a business owner to ‘go home’, that’s not pride; that’s racism,” he told supporters.