Minister says he would accept £10mn from under fire Tory donor
Rishi Sunak has rejected a call to return £10m donated to the Conservative Party by a businessman who made a racist comment about Diane Abbott.
Labour leader Keir Starmer asked the prime minister if he would give the money back after Frank Hester said Ms Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and that she should be “shot”.
“No… I am pleased [Mr Hester] is supporting a party that represents one of the most diverse governments in this country’s history,” he told the Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The PM described Mr Hester’s comments as unacceptable and “racist” but accepted the multi-millionaire’s apology.
Earlier, minister Kemi Badenoch broke ranks with other senior colleagues to condemn Mr Hester’s comments as “racist” but it took the prime minister a day to describe the comments as “racist and wrong”.
Scottish Tories have called on party to ‘review’ donations
The Scottish Conservatives have broken ranks with Rishi Sunak and the UK Conservative party and demanded a review into Frank Hester’s £10m donation, Zoe Grunewald reports.
In a statement released to the media, the Scottish Tories said Mr Hester’s comments were “racist and wrong”.
They added: “The Scottish Conservative Party has never accepted a donation from Frank Hester and the UK Conservative Party should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks.”
Watch live: Jeremy Hunt grilled on spring Budget by MPs
Watch: Sunak claims Starmer ‘let antisemitism run rife’ in heated Tory donor racism row
Sunak claims Starmer ‘let antisemitism run rife’ in heated Tory donor racism row
Rishi Sunak claimed Sir Keir Starmer “let antisemitism run rife’ in the Labour Party during a heated Prime Minister’s Questions today (13 March). Discussing alleged racist comments made about Labour MP Diane Abbott by top Tory donor Frank Hester, Sir Keir asked Mr Sunak: “What does the Prime Minister think it was about the hundreds of millions of pounds of NHS contracts given to Frank Hester by his Government that first attracted him to giving £10 million to the Tory Party in the first place?” Mr Sunak said he was “absolutely not going to take any lectures” from Sir Keir who he said “chose to serve a leader who let antisemitism run rife in his Labour Party”.
Watch: Tory MP – I don’t want the foreign aid budget to exist at all
Tory MP: I don’t want the foreign aid budget to exist at all
Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis said he does not want the foreign aid budget “to exist at all” after it was revealed £3.2 billion has been allocated to the Home Office to house migrants in hotels. Appearing on BBC Politics Live today (13 March), Mr Gullis and Labour MP Sarah Champion joined the panel to discuss whether migrants should be paid to go to Rwanda. Ms Champion said: “I can announce £3.2 billion of UK foreign aid has been allocated to the Home office, for hotels for the next financial year.” Mr Gullis replied: “I don’t want the foreign aid budget to exist at all.”
Watch: Sunak refuses to reimburse Frank Hester for £15,000 helicopter ride donation
Sunak refuses to reimburse Frank Hester for £15,000 helicopter ride donation
Rishi Sunak said he would not return a £15,000 donation from Frank Hester that funded a helicopter trip as a row over the Tory donor’s alleged comments about Diane Abbott continued. At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (13 March), the prime minister said: “No… I am pleased [Mr Hester] is supporting a party that represents one of the most diverse governments in this country’s history.” Mr Hester, who donated £10m to the Tories last year, allegedly made comments about the MP including that she made him “want to hate all Black women”. A statement from Mr Hester’s firm said he “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott… but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin.”
Watch: Starmer claims Tory party bankrolled by ‘racist’
‘Come clean’
Sunak responds by saying that his party looks after pensioners, pointing out that the triple lock has been kept.
He says it’s his government cutting taxes for “every single person in work”.
PM adds that all we have from Starmer is a “£28bn unfunded promise”.
Labour has scrapped the £28bn promise on green spending.
Sunak says none of it is funded and tells Starmer to “come clean”.
‘He’s shrunk at the first challenge’
Starmer points out that the overall tax burden is at its highest level since WWII.
Two weeks ago, he adds, the PM promised to crack down “on those spreading hate”.
“Today he’s shrunk at the first challenge,” he adds.
Starmer says is it any wonder that he’s “too scared to call an election?”
Again bringing up the plan to abolish NICS, Starmer finishes by saying voters can see that the only way to protect themselves financially is to vote Labour.
Sunak: NHS spending is going up
Suank says that if Starmer actually listened to the chancellor last week then he would have seen that “NHS spending is going up.”
He adds that he is cutting taxes responsibly for working people at the same time.
PM says it sounds like Starmer is against his plan to abolish NICs.
Starmer: Labour won’t stick to ‘unfunded’ plan to scrap NIC
Starmer says Labour will not be sticking to the “unfunded” £46bn plan to abolish NICs.
He says Sunak will have to either cut state pensions or NHS spending if he wants to make the move.
“Or he will have to raise other taxes or borrowing – which is it, prime minister,” he adds.
