Disgraced Tory donor Frank Hester gave the Conservative Party £5m just days before Rishi Sunak called the general election, it has emerged.
The Tories faced widespread calls in March to hand back money given to them by the business tycoon after he was alleged to have said that Diane Abbott – Britain’s first Black female MP – made him “want to hate all Black women” and that she “should be shot”.
Despite Mr Sunak eventually condemning the remarks as racist, Electoral Commission data shows Mr Hester’s Phoenix Parternship firm donated a further £5m to the Conservatives on 17 May – just five days before Mr Sunak called the election, months earlier than widely expected.
It takes the total which Mr Hester has donated to the Tory party to more than £20m over the past two years, making him the party’s largest donor.
In a statement following reporting of his remarks, Mr Hester said in a statement that he “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbot in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.
It added: “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.”
Ms Abbott had described his remarks as “frightening”, saying: “I live in Hackney, I don’t drive, so I find myself, at weekends, popping on a bus or even walking places, more than most MPs. I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talking like this is worrying.”
She added: “For all of my career as an MP I have thought it important not to live in a bubble but to mix and mingle with ordinary people. The fact that two MPs have been murdered in recent years makes talk like this all the more alarming.”
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