Donor likes ‘to make jokes about racism’

Frank Hester, the Conservative Party’s biggest donor, reportedly asked if there was “no room for the Indians” and suggested during a crowded meeting that staff climb on a train roof before saying he made “a lot of jokes about racism”.

Addressing “foreign” staff members of his healthcare technology firm The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) at a 2019 meeting which he had called to address racism allegations made by former employees, Mr Hester asked if there was “no room for the Indians, then?”

The meeting’s location, a crowded balcony at TPP headquarters, overlooked a railway line in Horsforth, Leeds, and Mr Hester added: “Climb on the roof, like on the roof of the train there maybe?”

Mr Hester also allegedly said he wanted to find jokes about Malaysian people during a trip to the country.

He reportedly added that “we should be able to make jokes about each other in a loving way, and tease each other, and enjoy each other’s company”.

In the same 2019 meeting, he said: “I make a lot of jokes about racism, about our different creeds and cultures. But I just want to assure you that it is just the most abhorrent thing.”

Law firm Carter-Ruck, representing Mr Hester and TPP, has previously said his comments were distorted, taken out of context and not a true or accurate characterisation of him or the company.

Mr Hester has not responded to the latest allegations.

Yesterday, posting on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote that the UK benefited “immensely” from a rich diversity of people and that hatred of others “based on race, religion, gender, sexuality or geography is odious and disgusting and that racism – in particular – is a poison that has no place in public life”.