Frank Hester, the businessman at the centre of a row about comments condemned as racist and misogynistic, gave the Conservative party a further £5m in January, figures released by the Electoral Commission show.
The donation, made by his company, the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), cements his status as the Tories’ single biggest donor, with a total of £15m now given by Hester either personally or through his company.
Hester was at the centre of a political furore in March after the Guardian revealed he had told colleagues at his IT healthcare company in 2019 that looking at Diane Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
The data also shows that three days after the Guardian’s original story, the Conservatives accepted a further donation of £150,000 from the Phoenix Partnership. That donation had been received on 8 March and was accepted by the party on 14 March.
Hester issued a statement apologising for his remarks about Abbott, describing them as “rude”, but said his “criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The statement said Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.
Despite widespread outrage at the remarks and eventual condemnation by Rishi Sunak, who called them “wrong” and “racist”, the Conservatives resisted calls from Labour and other parties to return Hester’s donations of £10m given last year.
The latest donation is likely to prompt fresh calls for the party to return the funds to Hester or TPP.
Abbott said news that the Conservatives had accepted another £5m from Hester was “an insult” to her “and all black women”.
She tweeted: “Rishi Sunak belatedly admitted Frank Hester’s remarks that I made him hate all black woman and should be shot were racist. Now it turns out Sunak accepted a further £5m from him. An insult to me and all black women.”
The Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds, said: “Rishi Sunak has proven he is a man with no integrity. He is too weak to return the money donated by a man who has made violent, misogynist and racist remarks which belong nowhere near our politics. If Rishi Sunak had a backbone he’d have cut ties with Frank Hester months ago, returned the money and apologised properly to Diane Abbott.”
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said: “I think lifelong Conservative voters will be appalled by this. I think all those other people donating money to the Tory party should ask for their donations back.”
Hester’s donations to the party since the beginning of 2023 represent 44% of the total national spending limit of £35m for each party in the general election, meaning returning it could create a significant shortfall.
In April, Richard Holden, the Conservative party chair, refused four times when questioned on the BBC’s Politics Live to say whether the party had accepted a further £5m from Hester. This followed reports Holden had said he was “comfortable about accepting money when people have been clear about their views”.
Holden said: “Mr Hester apologised fully for his comments at the time and I think if people have apologised then we should accept that, when they’ve clearly made a major contrition. I can’t comment on individual donations. It would be inappropriate.”
The Conservatives and Labour have amassed huge war chests before the election. Over the past year the Tories have significantly outdone Labour, bringing in £44m, while Labour drew £24.6m – excluding public funds.
However, in the first quarter of this year the fundraising was more evenly matched. The Conservatives brought in £8.48m and Labour raised £7.38m, excluding public funds. The Lib Dems brought in £2.48m in donations during the quarter, the Greens raised £400,000 and Reform, now led by Nigel Farage, got £25,000.
