Conservatives admit to biggest donor’s racist comments
... But they’re not giving back his money
LONDON (AP):
BRITAIN’S CONSERVATIVE government said on Wednesday that the party does not plan to give back £10 million (US$12.8 million) it received in the past year from a donor who made comments about a black lawmaker that have been condemned as racist.
The government is under pressure from some of its own lawmakers to return the donation from IT entrepreneur Frank Hester, who said during a 2019 company meeting that Diane Abbott, Britain’s longestserving black legislator, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she“should be shot”.
Hester, chief executive of healthcare software firm The Phoenix Partnership, was the Conservative Party’s biggest donor in 2023. His company has been paid more than £400 million (US$510 million) by the National Health Service and other government bodies since 2016, according to The Guardian, which broke the story of Hester’s comments.
Hester acknowledged that he had been“rude about Diane Abbott”, but denied being racist. In a statement on social media, he said racism “is a poison that has no place in public life”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initially criticised Hester’s comments – first reported on Monday – as “unacceptable”, but it was almost 24 hours before the prime minister’s spokesman labelled the remarks as “racist”. The shift came after Cabinet Minister Kemi Badenoch, who is black, broke ranks and decried Hester’s racism.
Sunak told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Wednesday that“the alleged comments were wrong, they were racist”. He added that Hester had “rightly apologised for them, and that remorse should be accepted”.
Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake told broadcasters that the Tories would not give back the money Hester had given to the party. He told Sky News that“clearly”the comments were racist, but that it was right to keep the donation because Hester “is not a racist, and he has apologised for what he said”.
Asked by the BBC whether the party would take more money from Hester, Hollinrake said: “As I now understand the situation, yes.”
But Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of England’s West Midlands region, told BBC Radio that if it were up to him, “I would think about the company I kept and I would give that money back.”
Nus Ghani, a senior Conservative lawmaker and junior business minister, said on social media: “Zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in today’s politics.”
Opposition politicians lambasted Sunak over Hester’s remarks during Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament on Wednesday.
“Is the prime minister proud to be bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynist language?” asked Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.
Sunak defended taking money from Hester, saying“ultimately, he has been donating to the most diverse Cabinet in history, led by the first nonwhite prime minister”.
Abbott, 70, was elected to the House of Commons in 1987, representing an area of east London, becoming Britain’s first black woman member of Parliament. She sits as an independent after being kicked out of the Labour Party caucus last year for comments that suggested Jewish and Irish people do not experience racism“all their lives”.
She called Hester’s comments “frightening”, especially since two British lawmakers have been murdered since 2016.