‘Accept remorse of donor’, PM says
Sunak told he is ‘bankrolled by someone using racist language’
RISHI Sunak has called for people to accept a Tory party donor’s “remorse” over alleged comments the Prime Minister called racist, amid calls for him to hand back a £10m donation.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, called on the Prime Minister to return the donations made by Frank Hester, inset, who is alleged to have said that Diane Abbott, the country’s longest-serving black MP, should be shot.
Mr Hester, who is chief executive of Leeds-based healthcare company TPP, is also alleged to have said that Ms Abbott made him “want to hate all black women”. Downing Street on Tuesday said Mr Hester’s comments were “racist”.
Sir Keir asked the Prime Minister during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday whether he was “proud to be bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynistic language”.
Mr Sunak responded: “The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist, he has rightly apologised for them and that remorse should be accepted. There is no place for racism in Britain, and the Government I lead is living proof of that.”
Sir Keir continued: “How low would he have to sink, what racist, woman-hating threat of violence would he have to make before the Prime Minister plucked up the courage to hand back the £10m that he’s taken from him?”
Mr Sunak reiterated that “the gentleman apologised genuinely for his comments and that remorse should be accepted”.
The Scottish Conservatives criticised taking donations from Mr Hester, saying: “The Scottish Conservative Party has never accepted a donation from Frank Hester and the UK Conservative Party should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks.”
Police are understood to have been contacted about the remarks, with Scotland Yard saying officers are in touch with an MP about a report in The Guardian, which broke the story.
It comes as the Government today unveiled new measures to tackle extremism. This includes an “updated and more precise” definition of extremism used by departments and officials, in addition to principles to make sure extremist groups are not funded or given a platform.
It states that extremism is the “promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance” that involves the destruction of people’s freedoms or the overturn of democracy.
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said that anti-Semitic incidents had risen by 147 per cent since the October 7 attack by Hamas, with antiMuslim hate cases rising by 335 per cent in the last four months. Officials said this is the first in a “series of steps to promote social cohesion, democratic resilience, and to counter extremism and religious hatred”.
Michael Gove, the Communities Secretary, said: “The United Kingdom is a success story – a multi-national, multiethnic, multi-faith democracy. It is stronger because of its diversity.
“The pervasiveness of extremist ideologies has become increasingly clear in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and poses a real risk to the security of our citizens and our democracy.
“This is the work of the extreme right-wing and Islamist extremists who are seeking to separate Muslims from the rest of society and create division within Muslim communities. They seek to radicalise individuals, deny people their full rights, suppress freedom of expression, incite hatred, and undermine our democratic institutions.
“Today’s measures will ensure that Government does not inadvertently provide a platform to those setting out to subvert democracy and deny other people’s fundamental rights.”
Not a day goes by without the Government showing a propensity to fall further down the depths when it comes to decency.
The Prime Minister himself recently talked about the need to unify and his concerns for the growing divisions in the country. Yet he and his party’s actions paint a very different picture.
On Tuesday people had to listen to Government Ministers defend alleged racist remarks made by the Tory party’s largest donor. Only for Number 10 to then label the remarks by Frank Hester "racist and wrong".
And this was only after Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch broke ranks to call them out as racist late on Tuesday afternoon.
Yesterday morning, Kevin Hollinrake, Tory MP for Thirsk and Malton, then defended the party not returning the £10m donated to the party by Mr Hester, saying that returning the cash is not the “right thing to do”. He even doubled down to say the Conservatives would be willing to take more of Mr Hester’s money. This is a man who is alleged to have said that Diane Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving black MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
All the while legislation on quashing wrongful convictions of subpostmasters was being introduced. A piece of legislation that has cross-party support and comes off the back of righteous public anger at the poor treatment of subpostmasters, has been relegated to the Tories tying themselves up in knots because they refuse to do the decent thing and show zero tolerance towards racism.
If the PM was sincere about tackling extremism and about upholding decency, then he would call for the donations to be returned and send out a clear signal to donors that racism and misogyny will not be accepted.