LONDON (AP) — A major donor to Britain’s ruling Conservative Party came under fire Tuesday because he said a Black member of Parliament made him “want to hate all Black women” and that she “should be shot” — comments the prime minister denounced as “racist and wrong.”
The remarks by Frank Hester, chief executive of healthcare software firm The Phoenix Partnership, about Diane Abbott, the first Black woman elected to Parliament, were also blasted by opposition parties who said the Tories should return the 10 million pounds ($12.8 million) he donated last year.
“The comments about Diane Abbott are just abhorrent,” Labour leader Keir Starmer told ITV. “This apology this morning that is pretending that what was said wasn’t racist or anything to do with the fact she’s a woman, I don’t buy that I’m afraid, and I think that it’s time the Tory Party called it out and returned the money.”
Sunak’s spokesperson and some members of his party refused all day Tuesday to describe Hester’s comments as racist, but the prime minister reversed course in the early evening after Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, who is Black, broke ranks and decried Hester’s racism.
In a statement from his office, Sunak said Hester’s remarks were “racist and wrong” and that the donor had “rightly apologized for the offense caused.”
The Guardian reported that Hester told a company meeting in 2019: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like … 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.”
Hester said he phoned Abbott to apologize Monday for the “hurt he has caused her,” according to a statement from his company.
“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 color of skin,” the statement said. “He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison which has no place in public life.”
Police in London were assessing the matter after their parliamentary liaison and investigation team was contacted about the Guardian’s report. The Metropolitan Police said it was working with West Yorkshire Police because the comments were believed to have been made in Leeds.
Hester’s company has been paid more than 400 million pounds ($510 million) by the National Health Service and other government bodies since 2016.
Abbott, 70, was elected to the House of Commons in 1987 representing an area in north London. She sits as an independent after being kicked out of the Labour Party caucus for comments that suggested Jewish and Irish people do not experience racism “all their lives.”
Abbott issued a statement Tuesday saying Hester’s comments are particularly alarming because she is a public figure and a visible presence in the community who regularly walks or takes the bus because she doesn’t have a car.
“It is frightening,” Abbott said. “I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talking like this is worrying.”
