Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative minister who last week forced Rishi Sunak’s hand by calling a Tory donor racist and “appalling”, now says the party should still accept his money.
The business secretary said Frank Hester’s “remorse” should be accepted and the party could move on. Her words matter because a decision not to accept the money would mean returning up to £15 million that the Conservatives can ill afford to give back – and because few outside the party are ready to accept the idea that Hester has shown anything approaching remorse.
The Yorkshire businessman apologised for being “rude” to Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP, after the Guardian reported last week that he had told staff she made him “just want to hate all black women” and “should be shot”.
Hester was already the Conservatives’ biggest ever donor, having given £5 million personally and another £5 million through his company, The Phoenix Partnership, in the past year.
On Thursday Tortoise reported that the party was “sitting on” another £5 million donation, a claim the party has not denied, saying only that all donations will be declared as usual by the Electoral Commission. The next commission update to the register of donations is due in June.
Badenoch is a favourite on the right wing of the party to succeed Sunak as leader after the election, whenever he calls it, but she used a radio interview this morning to issue a call for unity until then. Tory MPs should “stop messing about and get behind the prime minister,” she said. She also drew attention to the local elections due in May, when Conservatives expect a drubbing, telling colleagues voters weren’t interested in “Westminster psychodrama”.
By most assessments, the Hester affair has transcended that narrow description.