British Conservative Party under fire over alleged racist comments from donor

Britain’s ruling Conservative Party was under pressure Tuesday to return more than 10 million pounds to a donor who reportedly said that Diane Abbott, a leading lawmaker, should be “shot” and that by looking at her he was “killing all black women.” wanted to hate. ”

According to a study by The Guardian NewspaperHealthcare technology entrepreneur Frank Hester made these comments in 2019 during a meeting at the offices of his company, The Phoenix Partnership. He has apologized but has not confirmed the Guardian’s account of what he said.

Mr Hester said on Monday that he “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbot at a private meeting several years ago, but that his criticism had nothing to do with her gender or skin colour,” in a rack released by his firm for misspelling her last name.

The statement added that he had called Ms Abbott twice “to attempt to apologize directly for the pain he has caused her, and that he deeply regrets his comments”, and that he “wanted to make it clear that he considers racism a poison’. which has no place in public life.”

According to the Guardian, Mr Hester said at the meeting: “It’s like you’re trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV and you think, I hate it, you just want to hate all black women because she’s there. , and I don’t hate black women at all, but I think she should be shot.

The first black woman elected to parliament, Ms Abbott, 70, is a prominent figure in British politics and spoke on home affairs for the opposition Labor party under its previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

In anticipation of this, she was suspended from the Labor Party in Parliament last year an investigation into a letter she wrote to a newspaperr calling for racism against black people to be distinguished from prejudice against other groups.

In a statement published on TuesdayMs Abbott described Mr Hester’s reported comments about her as ‘frightening’.

“I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talk like that is disturbing,” she said, adding that the fact that two MPs “have been murdered in recent years makes statements like this all the more alarming.”

One Labor MP, Jo Cox, was Murdered in 2016 by a right-wing extremist, and David Amess, a Conservative MP, was murdered in 2021 by a radical Islamist who opposed British airstrikes on Islamic State.

Mr Hester has recently become the Conservative Party’s biggest donor gave £5 million to the party, bringing his total donations to £10 million in a year. With a general election expected later this year, the party resisted pressure on Tuesday to return the money.

A senior Conservative Party MP and minister, Mel Stride, told broadcasters that Mr Hester’s alleged comments were “clearly wrong” but that people should “move on”.

That could not allay the criticism from opposition politicians. Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party, described the reported comments as “abhorrent” and told broadcaster ITV that Ms Abbott had been a “trailblazer” who has “probably faced more abuse over the years than any other politician then. sustainable basis.”

Mr Hester appeared to be “pretending that what was said wasn’t racist or had anything to do with her being a woman,” Mr Starmer said, adding: “I don’t believe in that, I’m afraid , and I think it’s time for the Tory party to call it out and pay back the money.”

Earlier, speaking in parliamentWes Streeting, a senior Labor MP, said the reported comments used “completely disgusting, racist and inflammatory language which has no place in our politics and public life.” Mr Streeting called on the Conservatives to return donations from Mr Hester, saying that “if they have any integrity at all they will return every penny.”

Some Conservative lawmakers were also critical, including Kwasi Kwarteng, who was briefly finance minister in the short-lived government of former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Mr Kwarteng told the BBC that the comments were “clearly racist and clearly sexist”.

Recent Conservative governments have done so contained a number of strikingly diverse cabinets and the party is led by Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first non-white prime minister.

But the party recently suspended one of its former lawmakers, Lee Anderson, after he claimed that ‘Islamists’ had gained control from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, a Labor politician. On Monday, Mr. Anderson formally left the Conservative Party and joined Reform UK, the small right-wing successor to the Brexit Party once led by Nigel Farage, which campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union.

Critics have accused the Conservatives of tolerating anti-Muslim hatred. In a letter sent to the Conservatives last month, Zara Mohammed, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that “Islamophobia in the party is institutional, tolerated by the leadership and by large sections of party members as is considered acceptable.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative business and trade secretary, said Mr Hester’s comments were, “as reported, racist.”

“Abbott and I disagree on a lot of things. But the idea of ​​linking criticism of her to being a black woman is appalling,” said Ms Badenoch, who is also equalities minister. in a social media post. “It is never acceptable to confuse someone’s opinion with the color of their skin.”

But she added that she welcomed Mr Hester’s apology and said there must be “room for forgiveness” if there was contrition over flippant comments.