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Historical racial prejudice has come back within British politics, and it makes people feel deeply uneasy, the Prime Minister warned, alerting that divisive far-right politics are “tearing our country apart”.

Confronting Discriminatory Rhetoric and Divisive Politics

Speaking with doctor and media figure Amir Khan, the prime minister pointed to the Reform UK party for enabling a return of racist and divisive politics which many believed was resolved years back”.

During the discussion, broadcast on a popular morning program on Tuesday, the PM provided a clear indication that the two-child benefit cap would be lifted during the upcoming fiscal announcement later this month.

Commitment to Combat Child Poverty

Asked if he planned to eliminate the limit, which charities have said is the biggest driver of poverty for children in the UK, Starmer responded: “I want to state unequivocally I will strive to drive child poverty down.”

He listed steps ministers have already introduced including no-cost school lunches, breakfast clubs, and child care support and emphasized: “Further action is necessary, and I can look you in the eye and tell you I will personally focus to cutting child poverty.”

When pressed on whether his comments indicated he intended to remove the two-child cap, he said he “wouldn’t be telling you we plan to reduce poverty among children without being sure that we will implement several steps for that purpose”.

Clear Signals from the Chancellor

The Chancellor, gave an equally strong hint on Monday when she told BBC Radio 5 Live how “in the end, a child should not be penalised if their parents are struggling financially”.

Government officials are getting ready to scrap the restriction fully, after initially considering ways to taper it either for very large families or richer ones. The Resolution Foundation has estimated the expense would be roughly £3.5 billion by the end of the decade.

Political Divide and Country’s Revival

In the interview, the Prime Minister said the ideological split in the UK now was between the government’s vision for renewal and “the toxic division of Reform” and others on the right who were “dividing the nation”.

“Parts of the discourse being used – racist rhetoric, polarizing language – which I believed had been addressed long ago is returning to politics and it makes people feel deeply afraid,” he stated.

“We must confront to that racism, that division, and declare confidently that to be British involves caring for others, is about being fair, entails tolerance and kindness, which we value deeply.”

Echoing Warnings from Wes Streeting

Starmer mirrored sentiments used by the Health Secretary, who cautioned earlier this month that a disturbing form of discrimination similar to the 1970s and 1980s was now worryingly commonplace once more with NHS staff were facing the worst of it.

Streeting noted occurrences of verbal and physical abuse based on people’s skin colour now happened so often that it had become “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“It is time to put a stop to discrimination across the UK and we need to place that ugly racist sentiment that’s found expression nationally back in its box and reestablish a climate in this country where racism is unacceptable to hold racist views,” the Health Secretary said.

Defining Choice for Voters

The Prime Minister spoke during a major political gathering this autumn to outline political battle lines between himself and Farage, saying that voters confronted a “defining choice”.

The prime minister said he was engaged in a struggle for the nation’s identity, and argued that while voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, existed “a moral line” which some politicians had overstepped.

Starmer vowed to confront anyone claiming that people who were not white were not truly British and that households who had lived in the UK for generations must be removed, saying people promoting such views were “against national unity”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hatred, that is not expressing concern: it is illegal. 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 is pure discrimination,” he told activists.