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Long-standing racial prejudice has come back within British politics, and it leaves citizens fearful, the Prime Minister warned, cautioning how polarizing hard-right political tactics are “tearing our country apart”.

Confronting Discriminatory Language and Divisive Strategies

Speaking with doctor and media figure a well-known TV doctor, the prime minister 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”.

In the interview, broadcast on ITV’s Lorraine show this week, the PM also gave his strongest signal suggesting the limit on child benefits would be lifted in the budget in the coming weeks.

Commitment to Combat Child Poverty

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

He outlined measures the government has already launched including free school meals, morning meal programs, and childcare and emphasized: “We need to do more than that, and I pledge that I am dedicated on reducing child poverty.”

When pressed on whether his comments indicated he would lift the two-child limit, he stated he “wouldn’t be telling you we plan to reduce child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will implement various actions to achieve this”.

Clear Indications from the Chancellor

The Chancellor, provided an equally strong hint earlier this week when she told BBC Radio 5 Live that ultimately, no child should suffer because their parents don’t have very much money”.

Government officials are understood to be preparing to lift the limit entirely, having originally looked at gradual removal for bigger households or richer ones. The Resolution Foundation projects this would cost about £3.5bn by the end of the decade.

Political Divide and National Renewal

During the discussion, Starmer said the ideological split in the UK now was between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” versus Reform’s harmful divisiveness and other right-wing groups who were “tearing our country apart”.

“Some of the rhetoric being used – racist rhetoric, divisive rhetoric – that many assumed we had dealt with decades ago has reemerged in political debate leaving people very scared,” he stated.

“It is essential to oppose to that racism, that divisiveness, 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 mirrored language expressed by Wes Streeting, who cautioned earlier this month how an “ugly” racism similar to past decades had become alarmingly frequent again with healthcare workers were primary targets of this trend.

Streeting said incidents of verbal and physical abuse based on people’s skin colour had become so frequent making it “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“It is time to put a stop on racism across the UK and we need to place such harmful attitudes that’s found expression in our country where it belongs and reestablish a climate across Britain where it is not socially acceptable to hold racist views,” the Health Secretary stated.

Critical Decision for the Public

Starmer spoke at the Labour party conference in September to outline clear divisions between himself and Farage, saying that voters faced a pivotal moment.

He explained he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country”, noting although voters had “reasonable” concerns regarding unauthorized immigration, there was “a moral line” that Farage and others had overstepped.

The PM vowed to challenge anyone who argued that people who were not white could not be English or British and that households residing in Britain for years must be removed, saying those advocating these ideas were “opposed to the country’s progress”.

“Encouraging racist violence and hatred, that goes beyond concern: it is illegal. Our political movement values national symbols, but if they are displayed alongside graffiti, targeting a business owner to leave the country, that is not patriotism; that is pure discrimination,” he told supporters.