UK Conservatives’ top donor Frank Hester spoke of hating ‘all Black women’
Al Jazeera
Opposition Labour Party blasts Frank Hester over remarks about Diane Abbott, who calls the comments ‘frightening’.
The biggest donor to Britain’s governing Conservative Party has come under fire after he reportedly said looking at the country’s longest serving Black lawmaker made him “want to hate all Black women” and she “should be shot”.
Frank Hester has given 10 million pounds ($12.8m) to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party in the past year, and the publication of his comments from 2019 prompted the opposition Labour Party to urge the Conservatives to return the donation.
The Guardian newspaper quoted Hester as referring to Diane Abbott, who became the first Black woman to be elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom when she won a seat in 1987.
“It’s like trying not to be racist, but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like, I hate, 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,” he was quoted as saying.
Hester said in a statement that he “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.
