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A Conservative minister says he does not believe his party’s biggest donor is a racist, despite alleged comments he made about former Labour MP Diane Abbott – apparently saying she made him “want to hate all black women”.
Rishi Sunak took the whole of Tuesday to call out the remarks from businessman Frank Hester about the MP – first reported in the Guardian – eventually saying they were “racist and wrong”.
But despite the condemnation, the prime minister said remorse from the donor “should be accepted”.
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Ahead of today’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), business minister Kevin Hollinrake repeated Mr Sunak’s criticism, telling Wilfred Frost on Sky News that the alleged comments were “clearly racist and wrong and there’s no question… you don’t judge somebody’s character based upon their skin colour”.
However, he added: “I think the key thing now is, is Mr Hester himself a racist? I don’t believe so from what I know, and I don’t know him.
“But I think in the context of what we know in the situation that we know right now, we should try and move on from this now, and I think that’s the right thing to do.”
Mr Hollinrake also appeared to reject calls from opposition parties for the Conservatives to return donations from Mr Hester and his company, healthcare software firm The Phoenix Partnership, totalling £10m.
“I think we should judge in the whole context,” he said. “We’ve got the most diverse cabinet in history. We’ve got the first British Asian prime minister in this country. We’re not a racist party.”
Asked if the Tories were “content to spend” the businessman’s money, the minister replied: “Well, on the basis he’s not a racist and has apologised for what he said, yes.”
After the reports first emerged, Mr Hester – who has personally donated over £5m to the Conservatives since the 2019 election – said he was “deeply sorry” for the “rude” remarks he made about Ms Abbott, including…
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