Diane Abbott has said it is “frightening” to hear of remarks made by Conservative donor Frank Hester, who told colleagues that looking at her made you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”.
Hester, who has given £10m to the Tories in the past year, said in a 2019 meeting reported by the Guardian that he did not hate all black women. But he said that seeing Abbott, who is Britain’s longest-serving black MP, on TV meant “you just want to hate all black women because she’s there”.
Abbott released a statement on Tuesday saying she is a “single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway, but to hear someone talking like this is worrying”.
She said: “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 … 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.
“I’m currently not a member of the parliamentary Labour party, but remain a member of the Labour party itself, so I am hoping for public support from Keir Starmer.”
After the publication of the remarks, a statement from TPP said 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 statement said Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.
The statement 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.”
TPP’s lawyers previously said the comments were not a true or accurate characterisation of the company or Hester.
On Tuesday, Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, told ITV’s Lorraine: “The comments about Diane Abbott are just abhorrent. And Diane has been a trailblazer. She has paved the way for others, she’s probably faced more abuse than any other politician over the years on a sustained basis.
“And I’m sorry, 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.”
Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson said on Tuesday that Hester’s comments reported by the Guardian were “clearly unacceptable” but refused to say whether they were racist.
Asked about what Hester had said, he told reporters: “I wouldn’t usually comment on alleged words, secondhand accounts, etc. But, as minister [Graham] Stuart said this morning, what is alleged and reported to have been said is clearly unacceptable.”
He refused to be drawn on why they were unacceptable, adding: “I don’t have anything to add beyond what minister Stuart said this morning.”
Abbott was a Labour MP for more than 35 years until she was suspended by the party in April last year after suggesting that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism “all their lives”. She is awaiting a decision on whether she will be reinstated.
Former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls said on Tuesday that he hoped Abbott could be given the Labour whip back as a show of support after apologising for saying something she probably shouldn’t have said.
“My personal view is that she should be brought back following that apology and be supported and defended rather than left on her own,” Balls told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
