Frank Hester: West Yorkshire police investigating Tory donor’s alleged racist comments about Diane Abbott

Sign up for the View from Westminster electronic mail for skilled evaluation straight to your inbox

Get our free View from Westminster electronic mail

Police are investigating alleged racist comments made by Tory occasion donor Frank Hester at a gathering in 2019.

The investigation by West Yorkshire police follows a police report made by former Labour MP Diane Abbott about the alleged remarks, as first reported by The Independent.

The power mentioned the investigation had been handed over from the Metropolitan Police because the assembly came about in Horsforth, Leeds.

A spokesperson mentioned officers have been now “working to establish the facts and to ultimately ascertain whether a crime has been committed”.

They added that the Metropolitan Police had been contacted on March 11 about a report in The Guardian, and that this was the primary time the comments had been dropped at the eye of police.

Ms Abbott filed a criticism with the Metropolitan Police’s parliamentary liaison and investigations group after Mr Hester, who donated £10m to the Tories final 12 months, allegedly made a sequence of incendiary comments about her, together with that she made him “want to hate all Black women”.

Mr Hester’s agency launched a press release after the comments have been first revealed, saying that he was “deeply sorry” and had rung Ms Abbott twice “to try to apologise directly for the hurt he has caused her”.

“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 colour of skin,” the assertion mentioned.

Mr Hester “abhors racism, not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”, the assertion mentioned, including: “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 later issued a press release which appeared to counsel his comments have been made “playfully without seeking to cause offence”.

Ms Abbott described the reported comments as “worrying”.

“It is frightening. 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,” she mentioned.

“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.”

The row has brought about outrage inside and out of doors of the Conservative occasion, however Rishi Sunak has refused to return the donation from Mr Hester.

The businessman – who was the one greatest donor to the Conservative occasion final 12 months – is reported to have donated an extra £5m to the Conservative occasion for the reason that begin of this 12 months.

Leading authorities figures have asserted that retaining the cash was justifiable since Mr Hester is “not a racist” and has issued an apology.

Communities secretary Michael Gove informed Sky News that he believed the enterprise tycoon’s apology was “sincere”, including: “I haven’t spoken to Mr Hester, but I think that when someone says that they are sorry, and I understand he’s deeply sorry for these remarks, then my natural inclination is to exercise Christian forgiveness.”

Meanwhile, enterprise secretry Kemi Badenoch dismissed the row over the alleged comments as “trivia” and insisted the Conservative occasion mustn’t return the businessman’s £10m donation.