Dawn Butler |Tories should redirect Hester’s donations to good causes

Over two weeks on, we are still reeling from yet another Tory racism scandal.

This time, Frank Hester – the Conservative Party’s largest donor – allegedly made incredibly racist and violent remarks in 2019 about my friend Diane Abbott MP and all black women.

He reportedly said: ‘You see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like I hate, you just want to hate all black women because she’s there … but I think she should be shot. [The executive] and Diane Abbott need to be shot. She’s stupid … It’s not as good as her dying. It would be much better if she died. She’s consuming resource. She’s eating food that other people could eat. You know?’

These are incredibly disturbing and sinister comments to come from someone so involved in our politics. Diane has understandably said that his comments are ‘frightening’ – and I was frightened for her. It makes us all feel less safe.

Frank Hester tried to claim since that his comments were “rude”, but that his criticism “had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. But let me be clear – these remarks represent deep-seated racism, nothing less, and we need to treat it as such.

Comments like those, and the failure of those in power to condemn them, fuel the flames of division and hatred in our society and put people at risk.

After initially dragging his feet – a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak finally said: “The comments allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong.”

And though the prime minister also said that Hester has apologised, as far as I can tell, he only apologised for being rude, not for being racist.

The fact that Hester apparently wants to ‘hate all Black women’ is the very definition of racism and prejudice. Calling for an MP to be ‘shot’ and essentially starved is sick, dangerous, and exposes a very worrying level of violent behaviour and beliefs.

That these alleged comments came from a man who has received £400m in government and NHS contracts and donated £10m to the Tories in the past year, is just chilling.

I launched a motion in Parliament, EDM 495, calling on the prime minister and all leaders to condemn these shocking remarks. I’m delighted to have received cross-party support, with MPs from all major parties and more signing my motion.

RESCIND CONTRACTS

It is vital that we stand united against hate, division and racism of all forms, no matter our political allegiance. We simply cannot allow such violent, discriminatory remarks to become normalised in our politics or our society.

It’s a real battle with the way black women are abused and disregarded in society, and it’s time this stops. We cannot forget that, in the run-up to a previous general election, it was found that Diane Abbott alone received almost half of all the abusive tweets sent to female MPs.

Shockingly, some Tories seemingly couldn’t call this out for what it was.

Cabinet Minister Mel Stride said that while Hester’s alleged remarks were “inappropriate”, they were not “gender-based or race-based”. Tory peer Lord Marland tried to argue: “He does a lot of business in Jamaica, he does business in Malaysia, Bangladesh and places like that, so he’s not a racist.” Kevin Hollinrake, parliamentary undersecretary for the Department of Business and Trade, said the Tory Party would accept another £10m donation from him “on the basis that we don’t believe Mr Hester’s a racist”.

If Sunak will not stamp out racism with his friends and in his own party, then how can he possibly fight racism in the country?

I believe that all the contracts Hester holds must be rescinded immediately – and he should be blocked from holding contracts in the future. Hester is the custodian of millions of UK medical records through the government contracts, but he should be nowhere near our sensitive data.

And the prime minister must immediately instruct his party to redirect every single penny of the donations Frank Hester made to the Conservative Party towards good causes, charities and organisations which fight racism and discrimination such as Show Racism the Red Card, The Runnymede Trust, Kick it out, Stand up to Racism, Hope Not Hate and Black Women Rising. Or, they could even ask Diane for some suitable local organisations in her constituency. After all, why should Hester get his money back after what he has done?

He needs to address his behaviour – if he is truly sorry, then he should hand back his OBE and issue a genuine apology which accepts that his remarks were racist.

SIMPLY UNFORGIVABLE

If you allow hatred and discrimination to fester and fail to condemn it, then you open the doors to the far-right – you send a tacit message to others that it is acceptable to racially abuse people.

This is already an extremely sensitive time in our politics, and we know the very real dangers MPs face and have faced, so for someone to call for Diane to be shot is simply unforgivable.

I know what it feels like. A man named Stephen Peddie was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, after he tweeted about me, saying:“Someone please explain to me why a bullet to the back of the head is anything but justified and wholly deserved.”

I also received a barrage of abusive and racist messages on social media since I called out Hester’s alleged remarks. It is scary – it shows what happens when racists are emboldened.

It is not right, and it is not fair – enough is enough. The country must keep their politicians safe, as that is important for a functioning democracy.

Rishi Sunak cannot be selective about the safety of MPs because a man with racist views gives them £10m. You cannot take millions from someone who talks about wanting to “hate all black women”, and who makes such openly violent remarks.

The Tories must cancel Hester’s contracts and redirect his money towards anti-racism causes. It is time to properly act.

Dawn Butler is Labour member of parliament for Brent Central and writes a monthly column for the Weekly Gleaner.