British PM Rishi Sunak keeps donation despite race row

Businessman Frank Hester alleged to have said Diane Abbott made him ‘want to hate all black women’ and she ‘should be shot’.

Diane Abbott described frank Hester’s comments as ‘frightening’ and ‘alarming’ given the murders of MPs Jo Cox and David Amess. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak resisted growing calls overnight on Wednesday for his Conservative Party to return millions of pounds to a major donor who is accused of making racist comments about a high-profile black MP.

Businessman Frank Hester, 57, is alleged to have said that Diane Abbott – Britain’s longest-serving black MP and a former Labour frontbencher – made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

The 2019 comments emerged as Mr Sunak pledged to crack down on extremism, and with ­increasing concern about the safety of MPs, after two were murdered in recent years and others have been facing threats and intimidation.

Mr Sunak – an Indian-origin Hindu who became Britain’s first prime minister of colour when he entered Downing Street in October 2022 – took more than 24 hours to condemn the remarks by Mr Hester.

He told parliament on Wednesday that the comments were “racist” and “wrong” but added that Mr Hester had “rightly apologised and that remorse should be accepted”.

“There’s no place for racism in Britain and the government that I lead is living proof of that,” Mr Sunak added.

Mr Hester, CEO of software company The Phoenix Partnership, has donated more than £10m ($19.3m) to the Tories and paid £15,000 for Mr Sunak to take a helicopter trip late last year.

“I’m pleased that the gentleman is supporting a party that represents one of the most diverse governments in this country’s history led by this country’s first British-Asian prime minister,” Mr Sunak said.

British Businessman Frank Hester has been widely condemned after the emergence of comments he allegedly made about Labour MP Diane Abbott.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said Mr Sunak should find “the courage” to hand back the £10m.

The Prime Minister is also coming under pressure from members of his own party over the controversy.

“I would think about the company I kept and I would give that money back,” Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, told BBC radio.

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said the UK Tory party “should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks”.

And Tory MP Nus Ghani tweeted that “zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in today’s politics”, although she did not specifically mention the row in her post.

The Guardian newspaper, which broke the story late on Monday, reported that Mr Hester made the comments during a meeting at his company’s headquarters in 2019. In a follow-up story on Tuesday night, it wrote Mr Hester had also said “no room for the Indians” during a crowded meeting, and suggested that they “climb on the roof, like on the roof of the train there”.

Mr Hester has admitted making “rude” comments about Ms Abbott, but claimed that they had “nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

Ms Abbott was Britain’s first black female MP when she was elected to parliament in 1987.

She sat as a Labour MP until she was suspended in April last year for saying Jewish people were not subject to racism “all their lives”.

Ms Abbott, described Mr Hester’s comments as “frightening” and “alarming”, given the murders of MPs Jo Cox and David Amess in recent years.

The government is due to unveil a new definition of extremism on Thursday amid a spike in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since the start of the ­Israel-Hamas war.

The racism row is an un­needed distraction for Mr Sunak, with the Tories trailing Labour in the polls and an election due to be held by the end of the year.

AFP