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.

They have some brass neck, that is for sure!

@Clavinova

I'm likely to vote for labour in the next election.

If a labour donor said:

"It's like trying not to be racist but you see Priti Patel on the TV, and you're just like I hate, you just want to hate all Asian women because she's there, and I don't hate all Asian women at all, but I think she should be shot. (The executive) and Priti Patel need to be shot."

Then I would unequivocally condemn those comments and campaign for Labour to return the dirty money donated by the racist who said those things as a show of morals. And for KS to call the donor racist.

I find it staggering that you don't outright condemn the comments made and instead use whatabourery.

And I don't for a second believe that if the above happened with a labour donor, you wouldn't be calling labour morally bankrupt if they kept the money and KS refused to call the donor racist.

We've got a bloke making not even subtle references to one of the core underpinnings of Nazi ideology and people are finding time and feeling the need itt to criticise other people?

Incredible

If it adds anything to the story, he is well known in IT circles, and is like this to everyone. He's not a popular man. You should see the comments on LinkedIn.

@KnittedCardi Reaping what he sows, you mean ? Somebody dobbed him in, he didn't suddenly develop a profound sense of conscience !

Oh come on...

No that's not what I am saying. People keep challenging me to explain, or directing questions at me and then I get criticised for apparently continuing to derail the thread further by repsonding to them.

I can either respond, or not derail the thread. I can't do both. So as I do actually think that most of you are perfectly capable of understanding the point I am making, even if you like to pretend you do not, I am going to leave it right there.

Sunak has broken his silence

Breaking:

Rishi Sunak believes that Tory donor Frank Hester's comments about Diane Abbott were 'racist and wrong'

PM spox: 'The comments allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong. He has now rightly apologised for the offence caused and where remorse is shown it should be accepted.

'The Prime Minister is clear there is no place for racism in public life and as the first British-Asian Prime Minister leading one of the most ethnically diverse Cabinets in our history, the UK is living proof of that fact'

https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1767620548375253026?s=20

Not sure Heater actually apologised for either his racism or misogyny.

Glad to see he has called the remarks racist. Took too long but better late than never.

Hester not Heater!

I think he apologised for 'being rude'

Now they should return the money and rishi should take the train like everyone else. No more free helicopter trips from his mate

Difficult decision about the donation in an election year though.

Only if you haven’t got a scintilla of integrity or moral decency.

It is racist. Why do you think I would ever prefer sexism if its in a different newspaper?

Some people make flippant comments without thinking of this context.
This is why there needs to be space for forgiveness where there is contrition

Mm.

There's a limited extent to which I agree with Badenoch's tweet here.

If someone is young or otherwise lacking knowledge and is just parroting some phrase they've heard without real understanding, then I'm usually happy to cut them some slack. Explain the issue to them: if they're mortified, fair enough, that's the time for forgiveness.

Ditto when people have had a tongue-tangle when speaking live or writing a quick reactive tweet. I'm forever having to edit my own comments for not actually saying what I was attempting to say, by the time I've crashed a couple of clauses into each other, so I can hardly criticise.

But this is not an example of that.

Hester's comments weren't borderline - including the "useless eaters"😱 one – and this guy is old enough and senior enough to know what he was saying, and appears to have said it quite coherently.

It's no surprise at all to learn he has form.

Real contrition is one thing. A senior exec's "I'm sorry you're making a fuss about me being caught" is quite another.

As an aside, Badenoch's tweet is timed at 4:19 pm, so by the time she made her statement she would have known pretty much the same background info on Hester that we do.

Utterly disgusting.

Breaking: PM spokesperson says words were racist and wrong.

Do we know why this has suddenly surfaced after nearly five years? Who has been sitting on the recording/transcript or whatever it was, for all that time then suddenly decided to go public with it now?

Oh,I'm late as usual ....

It is often the way. Does it much matter?

That has taken all day.

Why is this man being given millions of tax payers money if he’s so well known as being awful? Surely companies should be properly vetted before being given these contracts?

I expect the latest £5 million donation made this month might have prompted it.

Well I think so, yes. It's clearly a disgusting thing to say. I just wonder why the person who has had access to the quotes all this time feels duty bound to make them public now, but didn't feel enough outrage in any of the preceding years. It's just odd.

Ok thanks, so he wasn't a donor at the time the comments were made, presumably.