A TORY minister has said his party should continue to accept money from a donor embroiled in a row over “clearly racist” comments he made about Diane Abbott.
Frank Hester, the chief executive of a clinical software company, has donated £10 million to the Conservative Party over the past year.
However, earlier this week The Guardian revealed remarks made by Hester in 2019 towards Abbott, in which he said the UK’s longest-serving black MP made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is now facing calls to hand back the money donated to his party by Hester.
But during a round of broadcast media interviews on Wednesday morning business minister Kevin Hollinrake claimed that the Tories should continue to accept money from Hester.
READ MORE: Tories told to hand back millions after top donor's 'racist' comments
BBC journalist Jon Kay asked Hollinrake whether the Conservative Party would accept the money if Hester offered them another £10 million donation.
He replied: “Well, on the basis that we don’t believe Mr Hester is a racist, yes.
“But I’ve got to say all the people I spoke to yesterday – I spoke to members of the public and postmasters and many other people – nobody mentioned this story to me.”
When pressed by Sky News over whether the party should hand back Hester’s previous donations, Hollinrake once again defended keeping the cash.
“I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“I think his comments were clearly racist and wrong. There’s no question about that. You don’t judge someone’s character based upon their skin colour.
“He’s apologised for that. I don’t think that means that Frank Hester is necessarily a racist. I don’t know Frank Hester, to be honest.
“But the fact he’s come out and apologised, we should welcome that. I think he’s tried to apologise personally to Diane Abbott over these comments and that’s the right thing to do.
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“But I don’t think that means we should judge his character purely based on something that was said during a private conversation that he’s apologised for.”
It comes after Rishi Sunak and his Tory MPs initially appeared reluctant to describe Hester’s comments as “racist”, refusing to do so until former leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch broke ranks and did so on social media.
Hours after Badenoch’s statement a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said Hester’s comments were “racist and wrong” but added that his apology should be accepted.
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