Keir Starmer urges Tories to return £10m from top donor Frank Hester over ‘abhorrent’ Diane Abbott comments

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Keir Starmer has described a Tory donor’s alleged remarks about Diane Abbott as “abhorrent” and urged the occasion to hand again his cash.

The Labour chief defended Ms Abbott as a “trailblazer” who has impressed others after the Conservative Party’s greatest donor was reported as saying that she “should be shot”.

Frank Hester, who has donated £10m to the Conservatives previously yr, can be accused of claiming that taking a look at Ms Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women”.

Mr Hester, founder and chief government of The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), has accepted that his comments had been “rude”, however insisted they’d “nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

The Conservatives have additionally refused to describe Mr Hester’s comments as “racist”, with pensions minister Mel Stride saying: “I don’t think what he was saying was a gender based or race based comment.”

But, talking to ITV’s Lorraine on Tuesday, Sir Keir mentioned he “does not buy” that the remarks weren’t “racist”.

He mentioned: “Those comments about Diane Abbott are just abhorrent. Diane has been a trailblazer, she has paved the way for others.

“She has probably faced more abuse than any other politician over the years on a sustained basis.

“And I’m sorry, this apology this morning that pretends what was said was not racist or was not anything to do with the fact she is a woman… I don’t buy that, I’m afraid.”

Tory opponents have seized on the remarks and urged the governing occasion to give again the money Mr Hester and his firm have donated.

Adding to the calls, Sir Keir mentioned: “I think it is time the Tory Party called it out and returned the money.”

An investigation by The Guardian alleged that the businessman, talking a few feminine government from one other firm, mentioned: “She’s s***. She’s the s***test person. Honestly I try not to be sexist but when I meet somebody like [the executive], I just …

“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.

“[The executive] and Diane Abbott need to be shot. She’s stupid … If we can get [the executive] being unprofessional we can get her sacked. It’s not as good as her dying. It would be much better if she died. She’s consuming resource. She’s eating food that other people could eat. You know?”

A press release printed by Mr Hester’s firm mentioned he “abhors racism, not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970’s”.

The assertion added: “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.”

In response to a request by the BBC, a spokesperson for Mr Hester mentioned the assertion just isn’t a affirmation of the alleged quotes in The Guardian.

Mr Hester arrange TPP in 1997 and in 2015 was given an OBE for his providers to healthcare.

He has been invited on a number of authorities commerce missions previously, together with visiting India with then-prime minister David Cameron in 2013.

He appeared at quantity 321 on the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, with the newspaper estimating his wealth at £415m.

TPP’s predominant purchasers are the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

The authorities, NHS and native authorities have paid TPP greater than £440m since 2016, in accordance to evaluation by contract specialists Tussell.

The wealthy listing mentioned Mr Hester noticed a chance to construct IT software program for the NHS “when his GP wife grumbled about her computers at work”. TTP has been contacted for remark.

Ms Abbott was a Labour MP till her suspension in April final yr for writing a letter suggesting Jewish persons are not subjected to the identical racism as another minorities.

The first black lady to turn into an MP, she has represented Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987.

She has persistently been subjected to a disproportionate quantity of abuse in contrast with different MPs, and Amnesty International analysis in the course of the 2017 election discovered she was the sufferer of just about half the abuse directed at girls MPs on Twitter, which has since been renamed X.

Despite Sir Keir’s reward on Tuesday, Ms Abbott stays suspended and sits as an impartial MP pending an investigation.