13 March 2024 , 10:34
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Rishi Sunak is under pressure to return cash from a millionaire Tory donor embroiled in a racism row - who forked out for him to take a VIP helicopter trip to Yorkshire.
Businessman Frank Hester became the Conservatives' biggest ever donor after gifting the party £5million individually and another £5million via his firm last year, according to the Electoral Commission. And pictures have emerged of the PM using a helicopter paid for by his firm.
In November, Mr Hester's firm TPP covered the £15,900 cost of Mr Sunak taking a private helicopter to a Tory campaign visit in Leeds. Photographs show the PM getting in the luxury aircraft in Battersea in London to be whisked up to Yorkshire.
Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds wrote to the PM yesterday to raise the helicopter ride. She wrote: "Accepting and using that money can only be treated as implicitly condoning and overlooking his deeply disturbing comments and the way he has run his business. "Anything less than returning the money will be a stain on the Conservative Party."
It comes after Mr Sunak finally admitted that Mr Hester's alleged remarks about former Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott were racist. In a meeting in 2019, Mr Hester reportedly said seeing Ms Abbott on TV made him "want to hate all Black women" and that she should be "shot", according to the Guardian. He denied his comments had anything to do with her race or her gender.
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More than 24 hours after the comments came to light, the Prime Minister bowed to pressure to condemn Mr Hester. The PM's spokesman said: "The comments allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong. He has now rightly apologised for the offence caused and where remorse is shown it should be accepted. The Prime Minister is clear there is no place for racism in public life."
But he did not say if the Tories would hand back £10million in donations made by Mr Hester last year. Today, Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake said that returning the cash is not the "right thing to do" and suggested the Tories would accept further donations from the businessman.
Ms Abbott, Britain's longest-serving Black MP, reported Mr Hester to the police yesterday over the comments, which were revealed on Monday. She said his remarks were "frightening" and "alarming", adding: "I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talking like this is worrying."
But Tory peer Lord Marland, who described himself as a friend of Mr Hester, said the magnate could not be racist as he did business in countries such as Malaysia and Jamaica.
In a statement on Monday, a TPP spokesperson said: "Frank Hester accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin. The Guardian is right when it quotes Frank saying he abhors racism, not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970’s.
"He rang Diane Abbott twice today to try to apologise directly for the hurt he has caused her, and is deeply sorry for his remarks. He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison which has no place in public life."
Leeds-based TPP has received more than £400m in NHS and other Government contracts since 2016.
Ms Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, has sat as an independent since April after Labour withdrew the whip following comments over the Jewish, Irish and Traveller communities. She is awaiting the outcome of an investigation.