£10m Tory donor’s Abbott slur WAS racist says Downing St
DOWNING Street last night belatedly branded a Conservative donor’s comments that MP Diane Abbott ‘should be shot’ as ‘racist’.
Frank Hester is alleged to have said Britain’s longest-serving black MP made him ‘want to hate all black women’.
rishi Sunak’s official spokesman initially said Mr Hester’s comments were ‘ unacceptable’ but would not go so far as to call them racist.
But No. 10 appeared to change their tone to align with Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who broke ranks to condemn the remarks as ‘racist’ and ‘ appalling’. A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘ The comments allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong.
‘The Prime Minister is clear there is no place for racism in public life and as the first BritishAsian Prime Minister leading one of the most ethnically diverse Cabinets in our history, the UK is living proof of that fact.’
Ms Abbott said Mr Hester’s words were ‘frightening’ and has now reported him to the police.
The veteran MP – who sits as an independent after being suspended from the Labour Party – called for ‘public support’ from Sir
Keir Starmer over the remarks.
A spokesman for Mr Hester, a healthcare entrepreneur who has given £10million to the Tories in the past year, said he is ‘deeply sorry’ for his remarks, but said they had ‘nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin’.
Ms Abbott said his comments were particularly ‘alarming’ given two MPs have been murdered in recent years and security for Commons members has been tightened this year.
‘I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway,’ she said. ‘But to hear someone talking like this is worrying. For all of my career as an MP I have thought it important not to live in a bubble, but to mix and mingle with ordinary people.’
Ms Badenoch said his comments, which were allegedly made in 2019 and reported in The Guardian, ‘were racist’.
She added: ‘Abbott and I disagree on a lot. But the idea of linking criticism of her, to being a black woman is appalling. It’s never acceptable to conflate someone’s views with the colour of their skin.’
The sentiment was shared by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who said: ‘They are clearly racist and they are clearly sexist and I think Diane was right to call out the call to violence.’
However, climate minister Graham Stuart said Mr Hester was a vocal backer of a ‘Hindu Prime Minister and he’s our biggest donor, so I don’t think this is a man who is a racist’.
Mr Hester was forced to apologise for his comments and said he ‘abhors’ racism as a ‘poison which has no place in public life’.
Labour and the Lib Dems have demanded the Tories return every penny Mr Hester has donated. Sir Keir told ITV yesterday: ‘ I’m sorry, this apology... that pretends what was said was not racist or was not anything to do with the fact she is a woman – I don’t buy that, I’m afraid.’
Labour’s shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘The Tories need to do the right thing and pay this £10million back now.’
Lord Marland, a friend of Mr Hester and a former Tory donor and party treasurer, claimed on LBC that Mr Hester could not be racist as he ‘does a lot of business
‘Needs to do the right thing’
in Jamaica, he does business in Malaysia, in Bangladesh and places like that’. Last night it emerged that Mr Hester himself admitted he made a ‘lot of jokes about racism’.
During a meeting of ‘foreign’ workers at his Phoenix Partnership to address allegations of racism made by ex employees in 2019, he asked if there was ‘no room for the Indians’ and suggested staff ‘climb on the roof, like on the roof of the train there maybe?’
Mr Hester did not respond to a request to comment.