Frank Hester, the businessman at the centre of a row about comments condemned as racist and misogynistic, gave the Conservative party a further £5m in January, figures released by the Electoral Commission show.
The donation, made by his company, the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), cements his status as the Tories’ single biggest donor, with a total of £15m now given by Hester either personally or through his company.
Hester was at the centre of a political furore in March after the Guardian revealed he had told colleagues at his IT healthcare company in 2019 that looking at Diane Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and had said she “should be shot”.
The data also shows that three days after the Guardian’s original story, the Conservatives accepted a further donation of £150,000 from the Phoenix Partnership. That donation had been received on 8 March, but was accepted by the party on 14 March.
Hester issued a statement apologising for his remarks about Abbott, describing them as “rude”, but said his “criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The statement said Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.
Despite widespread outrage at the remarks and eventual condemnation by Rishi Sunak, who called them “wrong” and “racist”, the Conservatives resisted calls by Labour and other parties to return Hester’s original donations of £10m given last year.
The latest donation is likely to prompt fresh calls for the party to return the funds to Hester or TPP.
Hester’s donations to the party since the beginning of 2023 represent 44% of the total national spending limit of £34m for each party in the general election, meaning it could create a significant shortfall if Sunak was to return the money.
In April, Richard Holden, the Conservative party chair, refused to say four times when questioned on the BBC’s Politics Live if the party had accepted the further £5m from Hester, after reports. Holden said he was “comfortable about accepting money when people have been clear about their views”.
He added: “Mr Hester apologised fully for his comments at the time and I think if people have apologised then we should accept that, when they’ve clearly made a major contrition. I can’t comment on individual donations. It would be inappropriate.”
Source: theguardian.com
