Badenoch says row over Tory donor 'racist' comments is 'trivial' and party shouldn't return money

The business secretary said the Conservatives shouldn't return money donated to the party by top donor Frank Hester, ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston reports

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch says the row over "racist" comments by a top Tory donor is "trivial", and that the party shouldn't give back the money he has donated.

"I do think that the relentless focus on it is trivial", the business secretary told ITV News on Monday morning.

"The amount of time we've spent on this is completely outsized to what matters to people", she said.

Ms Badenoch said: "This belief that we should not be able to move on when someone has made an apology for historical comments... is a problem".

Tory donor Frank Hester said last week he is "deeply sorry" for being "rude" to Diane Abbott, but has not apologised for being "racist".

Mr Hester is alleged to have said in 2019 that Ms Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving black MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

Ms Badenoch also told ITV Newsshe doesn't think the party should return Mr Hester's donations, because "his giving money to the party is him wanting to do something for the country".

"This is somebody who is doing work that is very important, help[ing] to support the NHS."

Ms Badenoch said the calls to return the money imply "the money was made from racism, which is not the case".

Mr Hester gave £10 million to the party last year, and it was reported last week that he has also given an extra £5 million to the Conservatives.

Ms Badenoch tweeted last week saying "Hester's 2019 comments, as reported, were racist", despite Number 10 and various cabinet ministers initially refusing to use the word "racist" to describe the remarks.

The comments by Ms Badenoch coincided with a U-turn from the PM shortly afterwards, as Rishi Sunak's spokesman issued a statement saying the remarks were "racist and wrong".

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It was also reported on Sunday that Mr Sunak visited Frank Hester’s office on a £16,000 helicopter trip paid for by the businessman.

It's alleged that Mr Hester paid for the Prime Minister's travel to Leeds and gave him a private tour of his company.

Ms Abbott has since hit out at both the Conservative and Labour parties, accusing them both of "shocking" racism.

Writing in the Independent, she described Hester's words as "outrageously racist and sexist" and added that "the Tory party has long been a source of whipping up racism in this country".

Ms Abbott described the comments made about her by Mr Hester as "frightening" in a statement last week, saying "to hear someone talking like this is worrying".

Ms Abbott, first elected as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987, has sat as an independent since April after the Labour whip was withdrawn following comments she made in The Observer suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”.

She is awaiting the outcome of an independent complaints process set up by Labour to investigate her remarks.

Senior Labour figures Angela Rayner and Harriet Harman have said they would like to see Ms Abbott back as an MP since the racism row broke last week.

Mr Hester is the founder of the Phoenix Partnership (TPP) in Leeds in 1997.

The Guardian reported that TPP has been paid more than £400 million by the NHS and other government bodies since 2016, having been given responsibility to look after 60 million UK medical records.

TPP describes the firm as providing “leading software that is transforming healthcare worldwide”.

In 2015, the businessman was made a member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to healthcare.

Mr Hester has been invited on several government trade missions in the past, including visiting India with then-prime minister David Cameron in 2013.

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