Labor has written to Conservative candidates urging them not to hand out campaign material it says was paid for by the party’s biggest donor, Frank Hesterwho was widely condemned for alleged racist remarks.
Hester, who donated £15m, funded around 40% of the Conservative Party’s national election spending.
Since then, Rishi Sunak has been under pressure to return the money The Guardian reported in March that Hester told colleagues in 2019 that watching Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot.”
The prime minister faced fresh calls to ditch the money on Thursday after the Guardian revealed more allegations that he refers to a staff member as the “token Muslim”, impersonates people of Chinese descent, and notes that one man is attractive to a black woman.
Hester apologized for the remarks about Abbott in March, while maintaining that they were not about race. All new charges were leveled against Hester this week. He did not respond to the claims.
On Friday, Anneliese Dodds, the Labor party chairman, challenged Tory candidates to take a stand against Hester’s money, saying around 50p of £1 spent in the short campaign would come from the donor.
In her letter, she said: “It was then assumed that Frank Hester’s words that Diane Abbott made him want to hate all black women were a one-off and that his other comments about ‘Indians’ among his staff or the ‘Asian corner’ – were misinterpreted.”
She said the Guardian’s new allegations revealed Hester made objectionable remarks “year after year”, calling a member of staff “coloured” and subjecting staff to Chinese impressions, and that one man was attractive to a black woman.
“Rishi Sunak and Richard Holden might not care about it,” she said. “They were happy to take thousands of pounds from Hester just days after the first allegations were revealed and were happy to make the Conservative election campaign hugely dependent on his donations.
“But if they’re not going to return that money in light of these latest revelations, then you have a decision to make. Will you do the right thing and stand up to them?”
Dodds told the candidates that if they didn’t, then “every brochure you fold and every social media ad you post puts you personally on the money” of a donor who allegedly made racist remarks .
On Thursday, it was confirmed that Hester had donated an additional £5 million to the Conservatives this year, as well as a further £150,000 after the party became aware of his remarks about Abbott. His total £15m donations make up around 40% of the overall £34m limit on national spending in the year before an election.
The Liberal Democrats called on Friday for Conservatives to donate the last £5 million given by Hester to a veterans’ charity.
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Richard Ford, the Liberal Democrat defense spokesman, said: “Yesterday it emerged that the Conservative Party has accepted a further £5 million from Frank Hester, a man who has made the most appalling racist and misogynistic comments. “Rishi Sunak should personally see to it that this money is donated to a veterans’ charity as an apology for his absence [at the D-day ceremony] yesterday. This is the least our veterans and service personnel deserve.
The Conservative Party did not directly respond to questions about what, if any, due diligence it did on Hester before accepting additional donations from him.
A spokesman said: “Mr Hester has rightly apologized for comments made in the past. Mr. Hester apologized and showed remorse and we consider the matter resolved.
“The Conservative Party is funded by membership, fundraising and donations. All reportable donations are duly and transparently declared to the Election Commission, published by them and in full compliance with the law. Such observations can indeed be made about who our donors are precisely because our donations are published transparently.
“Fundraising is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is taxpayer funding of political campaigns, which would mean less money for frontline services such as schools and hospitals – or going into the pockets of unions, such as the Labor Party.
