12 September 2024 , 11:42
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Donation came after Rishi Sunak condemned businessman’s remark that Diane Abbott made you ‘want to hate all black women’
Frank Hester gave the Conservatives a further £5m just before the election, according to data from the Electoral Commission, despite the party coming under pressure over his remarks about Diane Abbott that were widely condemned as racist.
The donation, made by his company the Phoenix Partnership, brings his total funding to the Tories to more than £20m, cementing his status as their single biggest donor.
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 Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
The police opened an investigation, Operation Brassminster, in March, which is ongoing.
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 their eventual condemnation by Rishi Sunak, who called them “wrong” and “racist”, the Conservatives resisted calls from Labour and other parties to return the £10m donated by Hester last year.
At the time, and during the election, the party repeatedly refused to reveal whether he had given any more money after the row escalated.
The fact it was donated days before the election meant it did not become public during the six-week contest, when parties have to give regular updates about donations during the campaign.
Other big donations to the Tories in the second quarter of the year include £1.25m from Access Industries, a company linked to the Soviet-born US-British businessman Len Blavatnik.
Hester’s original £10m of donations were given to the Tories in 2023, and a further £5m was accepted in January. 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 and was accepted by the party on 14 March.
Last week, Abbott said she was disgusted that the candidates in the Conservative leadership election had refused to rule out taking more money from Hester.
Hester’s donations to the party since the beginning of 2023 represent 58% of the total national spending limit of £35m for each party in the general election, meaning returning it would have created a significant shortfall.
In April Richard Holden, the Conservative chair, refused four times when questioned on the BBC’s Politics Live to say whether the party had accepted a further £5m from Hester. This followed reports that Holden had said he was “comfortable about accepting money when people have been clear about their views”.
Holden said: “Mr Hester apologised fully for his comments at the time and I think if people have apologised then we should accept that, when they have clearly made a major contrition. I can’t comment on individual donations. It would be inappropriate.”