Rishi Sunak urged to rethink decision to keep £10m Frank Hester donation

Rishi Sunak has been urged to rethink the decision to keep £10m from the Conservative donor Frank Hester after police said they were investigating “racist comments which were allegedly made” by the businessman in 2019.

The investigation by West Yorkshire police was triggered by a complaint from Diane Abbott, after the Guardian reported that Hester told colleagues that looking at the MP made you “want to hate all black women” and said she “should be shot”.

One senior Tory told the Guardian the party had not only received Hester’s most recent £5m donation, but had already spent it along with the rest of the original £10m, making it impossible to hand back.

The Conservatives have been spending heavily in recent weeks in the run-up to the local election campaign at which the party is expected to suffer heavy losses.

The prime minister needs to now do what he should have done almost a fortnight ago: pay back the money, cut ties with Frank Hester, apologise to Diane Abbott and finally get to work rooting out the extreme views which appear to be tolerated in his party.”

After the publication of the remarks, a statement from Hester’s company, The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), said he “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”.