Tory donor openly states Dianne Abbot should be shot..

[VestibuleVirgin]

Frank Hestor reportedly said: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like… you just want to hate all black women because she’s there.
“And I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.
“(The executive) and Diane Abbott need to be shot.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/frank-hester-tory-donor-diane-abbott-comments-black-women-labour-b1144631.html

Abominable, disgusting. Aibu to be incecsed by this?
Money allows all sorts of behaviours apparently, particularly if you give a lot of it to a political party.

Maybe, but he looks like he scoffed her share before she reached it.

Hester has issued a statement saying he accepts he was “rude” about Abbott in a private meeting, but that “his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

No denial @Clavinova. A bit of gaslighting though.

You’re quoting the wrong person.

It's intersectionality in action 🙄(sarcasm btw).

Not sexist because he's not rude to white women.

Not racist because he has plenty of black friends and family!

Just black women singled out

🤮

I think that's straightforward lying rather than distorting gaslighting?

Yet instead of being horrified by what Hester said, some posters are casting doubt on whether he said what he actually said, excusing it, downplaying it, deflecting it, minimising it, whatabout-ing it.

Says a lot about those posters.

Those people reaching to make the comments somehow less serious because of things Diane Abbot has said or done should just for a moment think about the narrative you have been fed over the years by members of the press. Not a single thing has gone unpublicised and every effort made to discredit her. An outspoken left wing black woman has been a target for decades so that now she's somehow partially responsible for this man's terrible comments.

Oh and I'm sure there's more to come out about him over the coming days. This won't be the extent of his activities.

It will be interesting to see if she'll answer that.

Oh god, sorry @Redundantrobin. Sincere apologies.

Oh I see. Just the answer I'd expect from that poster.

Except she didn’t say that, exactly, did she? She questioned the recruiting of Finnish nurses - in preference to Caribbean nurses - to work in Hackney, at the time a very multicultural (and particularly black) area. Health inequality related to race is a huge issue. Black women’s experience of healthcare is routinely one of being minimised and treated poorly, and without black voices within the system, it won’t get better.

There is nothing wrong with raising the issue in her capacity as a local MP.

Piggywaspushed
The fact that he [Hester] has repeatedly tried to apologise to her

Whereas John McDonnell has repeatedly refused to apologise to Esther McVey - he joked about her being lynched, referred to her as a ''bastard'' and called her "a stain on humanity" - Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry and Dawn Butler all refused to call him out. Yvette Cooper did though.

More of your whataboutery.

The one ‘positive’ thing about this is that it debunks the idea that racism does not exist in the UK.
Racism is more overt now whereas before it was
The likes of Trump and Farage have made it easier for racists to be racist

I sincerely hope that politicians from all parties come out and condemn this man

He makes a lot of the fact they were private comments. I am not surprised because had they been said in public I think this would be much more serious. His comments do not actually seem very flippant once you look at the thinking behind them.

Yeah, it reads like a memo from Heinrich Himmler, doesn't it? Straight out of the Nazi playbook.
I'm still sitting here with my WTAF face on. Sometimes a stone gets turned over and something loathsome crawls out.

So do you now agree that what he said was racist?

Oh give it a rest @Clavinova. First you throw doubt on him having said it, now you’re whatabouting. You’d have a lot more respect round here if you just acknowledged it was racist and condemned it - like Kwarteng has.

"Useless eaters". I'm stunned. Absolutely vile human being who should hang his head in shame. As should all of those tories who don't condemn what he's said.

And Sunak if he hasn't already returned the money.

Nobody deserves the abuse that is so frequently and aggressively dished out at Diane.

John McDonnell said:

"‘I spoke at a packed public meeting... a group in the audience completely kicked off quite critical of the whole concept because they were arguing, “Why are we sacking her? Why aren’t we lynching the b?”’"

He repeated what he had over heard.

This

Don't be ridiculous. Go and read up about her achievements. She's done amazing things (regardless of her politics).

FWIW I think she probably needed to be a strong, opinionated and heavily boundaried person to survive in the white male Westminster bubble so I'm not surprised people "don't like her". That's no reason to denigrate what she's achieved and write off the disgusting racist misogyny she's experienced.

I'm white and the racism whenever Abbott is talked about is palpable. Goodness knows how that affects black girls and women in the UK.

Whatever was said in 2012, would or should have been dealt with at the time.

Since then, we ve had 2 MPs murdered and another had his offices firebombed.

Donations, to any political party, should be from people of reasonable standing.

I'm not entirely sure about the return of the money in an election year but the Tories should chuck this guy out of the party (if he is a member) refuse any further monies and disown his comments.

No good Sunak doing a speech outside of no10 about division etc but then sit on his hands on this matter.