Tories given £5m more by Hester before Abbott row

The Conservative Party accepted a £5m donation from the company of Frank Hester in January, before he became embroiled in a row over alleged racist comments, new figures disclose.

On 10 January the Conservatives received £5m from The Phoenix Partnership, the healthcare software company Mr Hester runs, according to the Electoral Commission.

Mr Hester previously made £10m of donations to the Conservatives last year.

In March – after the latest £5m was donated but before it was known about – the tech boss was thrust to the centre of a political controversy after claims he made comments to staff saying that Labour politician Diane Abbott “should be shot”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak eventually condemned the alleged comments as “wrong” and “racist” but refused to return the money, saying Mr Hester’s “remorse should be accepted”.

Mr Hester apologised for making "rude" comments about Ms Abbott but said his remarks "had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin".

Mr Hester was by far the Conservatives’ biggest donor in the first quarter of 2024.

The next biggest was Sir Peter Wood, the founder of Direct Line, who gave the party £500,000.

Other notable donors include the businessmen Lord Hintze and Lord Ashcroft, who each donated £50,000.

In the same period Labour received £1.6m from Ecotricity, the company controlled by Dale Vince, taking his recent donations to the Labour Party to around £4m.

Mr Vince attracted controversy last year after it emerged he had also donated to Just Stop Oil. He stopped funding the campaign group in October, saying their protests were “counterproductive”.

Labour also accepted £700,000 from the hedge fund manager Martin Taylor.

Away from the business world, the party received £180,000 from Grayson Perry and £85,000 from Maggi Hambling, both artists.

A total of £10m of donations from Mr Hester last year had already been revealed in the Electoral Commission register.

There is a three-month lag before donations are made public by the commission.

Tortoise Media reported in March that the Tories had received a further £5m from the businessman but the Tories had previously refused to confirm whether this was the case.

Mr Hester allegedly said veteran MP Diane Abbott made him "want to hate all black women" and should "be shot".

The alleged comments were first reported by the Guardian on 11 March.

At the time, Ms Abbott was suspended from sitting as a Labour MP for saying Irish, Jewish and Traveller people were not subject to racism "all their lives". She withdrew her remarks and apologised "for any anguish caused".

The row increased pressure on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to lift the suspension of Ms Abbott, who was the first black woman to be elected to Parliament.

However, the former shadow home secretary and veteran left-winger, who is a close ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, was only readmitted to the party last week.

There was still uncertainty over whether she would be allowed to run as Labour’s candidate in her former seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington until Sir Keir said she would be free to stand for the party on Friday.