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Long-standing racial prejudice is resurfacing to UK politics, and it makes people feel deeply uneasy, the Prime Minister has stated, cautioning how divisive far-right political tactics are “dividing the nation”.

Confronting Discriminatory Rhetoric and Harmful Politics

In conversation with GP and TV personality Amir Khan, the prime minister pointed to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for enabling the revival of discriminatory and divisive politics that seemed a thing of the past long ago”.

During the discussion, which aired on a popular morning program this week, Starmer also gave a clear indication suggesting the limit on child benefits might be scrapped during the upcoming fiscal announcement later this month.

Promise to Combat Poverty Among Children

Asked if he planned to eliminate the limit, as noted by advocacy groups is the biggest driver of poverty for children across Britain, the Prime Minister responded: “I want to state unequivocally I am committed to lower poverty rates for kids.”

He listed measures the government has already launched including no-cost school lunches, morning meal programs, and child care support and emphasized: “We need to do more than that, and I can look you in the eye that I am personally committed to cutting child poverty.”

When pressed about if his comments indicated he would lift the two-child cap, he stated “It would be misleading to claim we aim to lower child poverty unless I was certain that measures will be introduced a number of measures in order to do so”.

Strong Signals from the Chancellor

Rachel Reeves, gave a similarly clear signal earlier this week stating to BBC Radio 5 Live that finally, no child should suffer if their parents are struggling financially”.

Ministers are getting ready to remove the cap completely, having originally looked at phasing it out for bigger households or richer ones. An economic thinktank has estimated this would cost about £3.5bn in the coming years.

Ideological Split and Country’s Revival

During the discussion, the Prime Minister explained the ideological split in the UK now was between the government’s vision for renewal versus “the toxic division of Reform” and others on the right that are “dividing the nation”.

“Some of the rhetoric we’re hearing – racist rhetoric, polarizing language – that many assumed had been addressed in the past is returning to politics leaving people very scared,” he said.

“We have to stand up such discrimination, that division, and declare confidently that British identity involves caring for others, is about being fair, entails tolerance and kindness, and this is our pride.”

Reflecting Warnings from Wes Streeting

The prime minister echoed language used by the Health Secretary, who cautioned recently that a disturbing form of discrimination reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s was now worryingly commonplace again with NHS staff were bearing the brunt of it.

Streeting said incidents of both verbal and physical attacks targeting individuals due to race now happened so often that it had become “socially acceptable to be racist”.

“We’ve got to call time to discrimination in this country and we need to place that ugly racist sentiment that has emerged nationally back in its box and reestablish an environment in this country where racism is unacceptable to be racist,” Streeting stated.

Defining Choice for the Public

The Prime Minister spoke at the Labour party conference in September to draw political battle lines between himself and Farage, stating that voters faced a “defining choice”.

He said he was involved in a struggle for the nation’s identity, noting that while voters expressed valid worries about illegal migration, existed an ethical boundary that Farage and others had overstepped.

Starmer vowed to “fight” anyone who argued that non-white individuals did not belong and that families residing in the UK for generations should be deported, stating people promoting such views constituted “against national unity”.

“Encouraging racial attacks and hatred, that goes beyond concern: it is illegal. This party – this great party – values national symbols, yet if they are painted alongside graffiti, targeting a business owner to leave the country, that is not patriotism; that is pure discrimination,” he informed supporters.