Racism row donor Frank Hester gave £5 million more to Tories

The man at the centre of the Diane Abbott racism row contributed more than half of the Conservatives’ total donations in the months leading up to the election campaign, Tortoise analysis has found. 

Frank Hester, who told colleagues the longstanding Labour MP made you “want to hate all black women” and had said she “should be shot”, donated £5 million in January this year through his firm The Phoenix Partnership. It takes the total donation from Hester in the past year to £15 million.

The Electoral Commission data published this morning confirms Tortoise Media’s reporting in March.

Three days after the Guardian broke the story on his racist comments, the Conservatives also accepted a further donation of £150,000 from the Phoenix Partnership. That donation had been received on 8 March, but was accepted by the party on 14 March, the Electoral Commission data shows.

Over the course of the whole parliament, Hester makes up 14 per cent of the party’s funding.

In the first quarter of the year, the most recent period for which figures are published, Hester’s contributions account for 57 per cent of the Tories’ total donations.

All told, the Conservatives and Labour raised more than £16.2 million in donations in the first three months. Labour raised roughly £7.3 million, compared to the Conservatives’ £8.8 million. 

Both parties have become increasingly reliant on mega donors to fill their war chests.

For the Conservatives, 20 people or entities made up 80 per cent of the total taken in the first three months of the year, each having donated at least £50,000. 

For Labour, 16 donors made up 80 per cent of the total they received in the same quarter, each having donated at least £100,000. 

That includes unions, although their relative contribution has dwindled relatively as others cough up larger sums: over this period, they made up 18 per cent of Labour’s total take, compared with 43 per cent since the start of parliament in December 2019. 

The biggest single donor to Keir Starmer’s party so far this year is Dale Vince, who contributed a further £1.75 million via his green energy company Ecotricity. 

That almost doubles his total contribution to the opposition party since the start of this Parliament. In total, he has given more than £5 million to the party, including during the Jeremy Corbyn years.