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Historical racial prejudice has come back within UK politics, which creates fearful, Keir Starmer has stated, alerting how divisive far-right political tactics are “splitting the UK”.

Tackling Racist Language and Harmful Politics

In conversation with GP and TV personality Amir Khan, Starmer pointed to the Reform UK party for enabling the revival of racist and divisive politics that seemed a thing of the past long ago”.

In the interview, broadcast on ITV’s Lorraine show on Tuesday, Starmer provided his strongest signal suggesting the limit on child benefits might be scrapped during the upcoming fiscal announcement in the coming weeks.

Commitment to Reduce Poverty Among Children

Asked if he planned to eliminate this restriction, which charities have said is a major cause of poverty for children across Britain, Starmer said: “I can tell you in no uncertain terms I will strive to lower poverty rates for kids.”

He listed steps ministers have already introduced including free school meals, morning meal programs, and child care support but added: “We need to do more than that, and I can look you in the eye and tell you I am dedicated to driving down childhood poverty.”

When pressed on whether his comments indicated he intended to remove the two-child cap, he said “I would not say we are going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking various actions for that purpose”.

Clear Signals from the Chancellor

Rachel Reeves, provided a similarly clear signal earlier this week when she told a national radio station how “in the end, no child should suffer because their parents don’t have very much money”.

Government officials are understood to be preparing to remove the cap completely, after initially considering ways to taper it for bigger households or wealthier families. An economic thinktank has estimated this would cost about £3.5bn by the end of the decade.

Political Divide and Country’s Revival

During the discussion, Starmer said the ideological split currently in Britain existed between the government’s vision for renewal versus “the toxic division of Reform” and other right-wing groups who were “splitting the UK”.

“Certain language we’re hearing – discriminatory talk, polarizing language – that frankly I thought we had dealt with in the past is coming back into politics and citizens are fearful,” he stated.

“We must confront to that racism, that divisiveness, and declare confidently that British identity involves caring for others, requires rationality, entails tolerance and compassionate, and we’re proud of that.”

Echoing Concerns from the Health Secretary

Starmer mirrored sentiments expressed by the Health Secretary, who warned recently how an “ugly” racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s was now alarmingly frequent again and that NHS staff were bearing the brunt of it.

Streeting noted incidents of both verbal and physical attacks based on people’s skin colour now happened so often that it was now “acceptable to express racism”.

“We must end on racism in this country and we need to place such harmful attitudes that’s found expression nationally back in its box and once again create a climate across Britain where it is not socially acceptable to be racist,” the Health Secretary stated.

Critical Decision for Voters

Starmer spoke at the Labour party conference in September to outline political battle lines between himself and Farage, saying that the public faced a “defining choice”.

He explained he was involved in a “fight for the soul of our country”, noting that while voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, existed “a moral line” that Farage and others had crossed.

The PM pledged to challenge anyone claiming that non-white individuals could not be English or British and that families who had lived in Britain for years should be deported, saying those advocating these ideas constituted “against national unity”.

“If you incite racial attacks and hatred, that goes beyond concern: it’s criminal. 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 is not patriotism; that’s racism,” he informed activists.