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Rishi Sunak is facing growing criticism for his response to “racist” remarks from the Tories’ biggest ever donor, as a Government minister said his party would accept another £10m gift from the businessman at the center of the controversy.
Frank Hester, a health technology entrepreneur who donated £10m to the Conservatives last year, was reported as saying on Monday that looking at Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP, “makes you want to hate all black women”.
Hester said he accepted he had made “rude” comments about Abbott in 2019, but insisted his criticisms had “nothing to do with his gender or skin colour”.
Sunak, who is expected to face scrutiny over his response to Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, did not condemn Hester’s comments as “racist and wrong” until more than 24 hours after they were first published.
His speech on Tuesday evening fell behind Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Lord William Hague, the former Tory leader, who all said the remarks were racist.
This came even after Downing Street initially refused to describe the comments as racist in a morning briefing with journalists.
Energy Minister Graham Stuart, dispatched by Number 10 on Tuesday morning’s media tour, refused to describe the comments as racist, insisting Hester should not be “cancelled”.
Lord Gavin Barwell, former Prime Minister Theresa May’s chief of staff, told the BBC on Wednesday that it was “extremely frustrating” that Downing Street had taken “so long” to call Hester’s reported language racist.
He urged the party to return Hester’s donation, saying: “Ideally, you would like to pay her back.” However, he acknowledged that the Conservatives may already have spent some of the funds.
Encouraging Sunak to rule out receiving further money from Hester, Barwell said: “I don’t think we should be accepting any more donations from him.”
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a former Tory president, also said the money should be returned, writing in X: “Elections fought with money from donors who make racist and offensive statements make election campaigns dangerous.”
Additionally, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer called on Sunak to return the money, but Downing Street said Hester “has now rightly apologized for the offense caused, and where remorse is shown it should be accepted”.
But Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake went further on Wednesday, declaring that the Conservatives would accept another donation from Hester, whose donation last year was the largest in the party’s history.
Asked whether the Conservatives would accept a new £10m donation from the donor, if offered, Hollinrake told the BBC: “On the basis that we don’t believe Mr Hester is a racist, yes.”
Sunak also faces another headache over the Government’s new definition of extremism, after the Church of England’s two most senior clerics warned it risked creating “further divisions” in society.
Communities Secretary Michael Gove is expected to outline a new official definition of extremism in the coming days. He will serve to cut off individuals and groups who benefit from the mandate from public funding and government commitment.
Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, on Wednesday warned of the “growing division” between different communities in the UK and said a new definition of extremism is not the “cure”.
In a joint statement, the two archbishops expressed concern that the new definition could threaten freedom of speech, worship and protest.
“Rather than providing clarity or striking a conciliatory tone, we think that labeling a multi-faceted issue as hateful extremism may instead vilify the wrong people and risk even more division,” Welby and Cottrell said.
They added that the new definition of extremism “risks disproportionately affecting Muslim communities, who are already experiencing increasing levels of hatred and abuse”, and urged the government to reconsider its approach.