STEPHEN Flynn has branded the top Tory donor who allegedly said Diane Abbott “should be shot” an “extremist” and “downright bloody dangerous”.
Rishi Sunak was savaged at Prime Minister’s Questions this week over his refusal to hand back the £10 million gifted to the Conservatives by Frank Hester.
According to The Guardian, Hester said that looking at Abbott (below) made him “want to hate all black women”. The independent MP – currently suspended from Labour – said his comments were “frightening”.
Flynn compared the comments with the kind of “extremism” the Government has rallied against in recent weeks.
He said: “The Conservative Party have accepted a £10m donation from an individual who has said that one of our parliamentary colleagues in this chamber should be shot. Why is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom putting money before morals?”
READ MORE: Tory MP says he would still accept cash from racism row donor
Sunak replied to say the comments were “wrong”, adding: “The gentleman in question has apologised for them and that remorse should be accepted.”
Flynn (below) said the PM’s response was “complete rubbish” and accused Hester of being an “extremist”.
He added: “The gentleman in question apologised for being rude. He wasn’t rude. He was racist, he was odious and he was downright bloody dangerous.
“Now on Monday, Number 10 said we’ve seen an unacceptable rise in extremist activity which has seeking to divide our society and hijack our democratic institutions.
“Isn’t the extremism that we should all be worried about the views of those Tory donors that we’ve read about this week?”
READ MORE: Fury as Speaker IGNORES Diane Abbott despite Tory donor row
Sunak replied: “No, Mr Speaker, there has actually been a rise in extremist activity seeking to hijack our democratic institutions. It’s important that we have the tools to tackle this threat.
"That’s what the extremism strategy will do and I would urge him to wait for the Communities Secretary [Michael Gove] to release the details.”
Sunak also faced questions on the scandal from Keir Starmer, with the Labour leader asking the PM whether he was "proud to be bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynistic language".
The Prime Minister replied: “The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist, he has rightly apologised for them and that remorse should be accepted."
Ministers and Downing Street refused to describe Hester’s comments as racist for most of Tuesday, but the Prime Minister’s spokesman finally labelled them as such in the evening, after Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch (below) broke ranks to call them racist.
Asked why it took so long, Sunak’s spokesman said that “it was right to give someone a proper right of reply” after “very serious allegations” were made.
He stressed that Mr Hester’s comments remained “unverified”, despite the fact the Tory donor has not denied making them, and declined to say whether the businessman has been contacted to confirm whether he said those words.
READ MORE: Scottish Tories break silence on donor's 'racist' comments with call for 'review'
Abbott was repeatedly passed up by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle in her attempts to speak during PMQs.
Campaign group Stand Up to Racism described the Speaker's refusal to allow Britain's first black female MP to speak as an example of "institutional racism".
Earlier on Wednesday, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said the Tories would accept further donations from the businessman.
No 10 would not comment when asked whether the Tories would take more cash from Hester in future.
And in a sign of Tory divisions over the issue, the Scottish Conservatives criticised taking donations from Hester.
A spokesman for the Scottish Tories said: “These comments were racist and wrong.
“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.”
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