Tories take £5 million from racism row donor

Oh dear. As election campaigns ramp up, the Tories have found themselves in another spot of trouble. It transpires today that the Conservatives accepted another £5 million donation from donor Frank Hester — the Yorkshire businessman who back in March was condemned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his ‘wrong’ and ‘racist’ remarks about Labour politician Diane Abbott. Talk about a lack of contrition…

Hester faced intense criticism after it emerged he had told colleagues at work that looking at Abbott makes ‘you just want to hate all black women because she’s there’ and that ‘she should be shot’.  The Tories were hesitant to condemn the remarks at first — and, it turns out, even more hesitant to return the £10 million which he donated to the party last year. Compounding the scandal was the Guardian’s revelation that Hester’s healthcare technology firm the Phoenix Partnership (TPP) donated a further £150,000 to the Tories — a sum accepted just days after the story broke.