LONDON — The biggest donor to Britain’s governing Conservative Party told colleagues that looking at the country’s longest-serving Black lawmaker made him “want to hate all Black women,” and that she “should be shot,” the Guardian newspaper reported.
Frank Hester has given 10 million pounds ($12.8 million) to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party in the last year, and the publication of his comments from 2019 prompted the opposition Labour Party to urge the Conservatives to return the donation.
The Guardian quoted Hester as commenting on Diane Abbott, who became the first Black woman to be elected to parliament when she won a seat in 1987.
“It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV and you’re just like, I hate, you just want to hate all Black women because she’s there, and I don’t hate all Black women at all, but I think she should be shot,” he was quoted as saying.
Hester posted an online statement in response, saying: “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 color of skin.”
He said he abhorred racism and had tried to apologies to Abbott.
Abbott issued a statement describing the comments as “frightening.”
“The fact that two MPs (Members of Parliament) have been murdered in recent years makes talk like this all the more alarming,” she said.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said the “comments allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong.”
“He has now rightly apologized for the offence caused and where remorse is shown it should be accepted,” the spokesperson said.
“The prime minister is clear there is no place for racism in public life and as the first British-Asian prime minister leading one of the most ethnically diverse Cabinets in our history, the UK is living proof of that fact.”
RENEWED SCRUTINY
Hester’s comments are likely to revive scrutiny of how Conservative Party handles allegations of racism.
The party’s former deputy chairman, Lee Anderson, was suspended after he refused to apologies for saying London’s first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, was under the control of Islamists.
Senior Conservative lawmakers said Anderson’s comments were wrong but declined to say why, or whether they were Islamophobic.
Prior to the statement by Sunak’s spokesperson, Graham Stuart, another minister in Sunak’s government, was asked by reporters about Hester’s comments on Tuesday morning. He said they were unacceptable but refused to call them racist, telling Times Radio he did not like to “sit in judgment.”
He said the party noted that Hester had said the comments made “half a decade ago” were not racist, and he told Sky News the party could not “cancel” people based on previous remarks.
Anneliese Dodds, chair of the Labour Party, said it was vital the party returns the donation.
“Rishi Sunak has claimed that ‘words matter’ and he must know that holding on to that money would suggest the Conservatives condone these disturbing comments,” she said in a statement. “Sunak must return every penny.”
