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Diane Abbott has hit out on the Conservatives and Labour, accusing each events of “shocking” racism in the Tory donor scandal.
The Labour MP, who was dragged into the centre of the race row, turned her fireplace on Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak after the pair clashed over the problem at PMQs.
Mr Sunak has refused at hand again a £10m donation from tycoon Frank Hester after he allegedly stated Ms Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and that she must be “shot”.
Writing in the Independent, she described his phrases as “outrageously racist and sexist” and added: “I am afraid long-term experience teaches me that the Tory party has long been a source of whipping up racism in this country, including directed at me personally.”
But dramatically shifting to criticising Sir Keir, Ms Abbott added: “The position of the current leadership of the Labour party is disappointing, which seemed equally reluctant at the outset to call out either racism or sexism….
“Instead, the entire focus was on the demand that the Tories give Hester back his money, which is surely not the primary point in this case.”
Ms Abbott, who was a Labour MP for greater than three many years till she was suspended final yr, stated her occasion had initially didn’t label Mr Hester’s alleged feedback towards her as racist and sexist in a press launched by shadow ladies’s secretary Anneliese Dodds.
She went on to sentence the “shocking levels of racism and sexism from within the Labour party, again much of it directed against me personally”.
Mr Hester has apologised for being impolite to Ms Abbott – and tried to name her twice to talk her immediately – however insisted he was neither sexist or racist.
After 24 hours of outrage from throughout the political spectrum – together with enterprise secretary Kemi Badenoch and residential secretary James Cleverly – the prime minister condemned the feedback as “wrong” and “racist”.
But Mr Sunak is dealing with growing strain to return the cash from the businessman, after he stated Mr Hester’s “remorse should be accepted”.
Labour hit again at Ms Abbott, saying that Wes Streeting described Mr Hester’s phrases as racist from the outset.
Former Conservative occasion chairman Chris Patten stated it was an “open and shut case” that the occasion arty ought to pay the £10m donation again to Mr Hester.
In an indication of inner Tory tensions over the problem, the Scottish Conservatives additionally criticised the choice to just accept Mr Hester’s cash and referred to as for a overview.
A spokesman for the Scottish Tories stated: “These comments were racist and wrong. The Scottish Conservative Party has never accepted a donation from Frank Hester and the UK Conservative Party should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks.”
Adding to Mr Sunak’s woes, one other Tory and mayor for the West Midlands Andy Street stated advised BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he’d acquired a donation from Mr Hester: “I would think about the company I kept and I would give that money back.”
Meanwhile, a serving minister, enterprise minister Nus Ghani additionally expressed discontent, tweeting that “zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in today’s politics.”
Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds stated: “The Scottish Tories are saying what everyone knows: accepting tens of tens of millions of kilos from Frank Hester is improper on each degree.”
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