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Decades-old racial prejudice is returning within British politics, which creates fearful, the Prime Minister warned, cautioning that divisive hard-right politics was “tearing our country apart”.

Addressing Discriminatory Language and Harmful Strategies

In conversation with GP and TV personality Amir Khan, the prime minister accused the Reform UK party for enabling a return of racist and divisive politics “that frankly I thought we had dealt with years back”.

In the interview, which aired on ITV’s Lorraine show this week, the PM provided his strongest signal suggesting the limit on child benefits could be removed during the upcoming fiscal announcement later this month.

Commitment to Reduce Child Poverty

When questioned whether he would scrap the limit, which charities have said is a major cause of poverty for children in the UK, Starmer responded: “I can tell you in no uncertain terms I will strive to drive child poverty down.”

He listed steps ministers have already introduced including free school meals, breakfast clubs, and child care support and emphasized: “Further action is necessary, and I can look you in the eye that I will personally focus on reducing child poverty.”

Pressed on whether his comments meant he intended to remove the two-child cap, he stated “It would be misleading to claim we aim to lower poverty among children unless I was certain that measures will be introduced several steps for that purpose”.

Clear Signals from Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves, gave a similarly clear signal on Monday when she told a national radio station how ultimately, no child should suffer if their parents are struggling financially”.

Ministers are getting ready to lift the limit entirely, after initially considering phasing it out for bigger households or wealthier families. The Resolution Foundation has estimated this would cost about £3.5bn by the end of the decade.

Ideological Split and National Renewal

In the interview, the Prime Minister explained the ideological split currently in Britain was between Labour’s “patriotic national renewal” and Reform’s harmful divisiveness and others on the right who were “tearing our country apart”.

“Certain language being used – discriminatory talk, divisive rhetoric – that frankly I thought was resolved decades ago has reemerged in political debate and it makes people feel deeply afraid,” he said.

“We have to stand up such discrimination, that division, and affirm with pride that British identity means showing empathy, requires rationality, entails tolerance and kindness, which we value deeply.”

Echoing Concerns from Wes Streeting

Starmer echoed sentiments used by the Health Secretary, who cautioned earlier this month that an “ugly” racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s was now worryingly commonplace again with NHS staff were primary targets of it.

The health secretary said occurrences of verbal and physical abuse based on people’s skin colour now happened so often making it “tolerated to hold racist views”.

“It is time to put a stop to discrimination in this country and we need to place that ugly racist sentiment that has emerged in our country back in its box and reestablish a climate in this country where racism is unacceptable to be racist,” Streeting said.

Critical Decision for Voters

Starmer spoke at the Labour party conference in September to draw clear divisions between himself and Farage, saying that voters faced a “defining choice”.

The prime minister explained he was involved in a struggle for the nation’s identity, and argued that while voters had “reasonable” concerns about illegal migration, there was “a moral line” that Farage and others had crossed.

Starmer vowed to confront those claiming that people who were not white did not belong and that households residing in the UK for generations must be removed, stating people promoting such views were “against national unity”.

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