Rishi Sunak hinted on Monday that the Tories would be willing to accept another £5 million from wealthy donor Frank Hester at the centre of a racism storm.
The Conservatives were struggling to “draw a line” under the row more than a week after it erupted.
Mr Hester, who has donated £10 million to the Tories, apologised after it was reported he said Diane Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving black MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
There are reports that the Conservatives are in the process of possibly accepting a further £5 million from Mr Hester as the general election approaches.
Asked about why his party would take this money given the controversy, Mr Sunak said on a visit to Coventry: “He’s already apologised for these comments.
“My point of view is when someone apologises genuinely, expresses remorse, that should be accepted and that is that.”
Mr Hester has admitted making “rude” comments about Ms Abbott, but claimed they had “nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.Mr Sunak’s delay in branding the comments by the wealthy donor as racist has added to disquiet among some Tory MPs over his leadership.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch broke rank last week to condemn the rant as racist, with No10 later following her lead.
Defending Mr Sunak, she told BBC Breakfast on Monday morning: “I don’t want a Prime Minister who is just going to be lurching out, making comments every five minutes in response to the media.”
She thinks the Conservatives can “draw a line” under the affair involving Mr Hester who has given at least £10 million to the Tories.
But Labour, the Liberal Democrats and some Tories have said the Conservative Party should return his donations.
But Mr Badenoch said: “In regards to donations to the party, people keep asking me ‘Do you think the money should be kept?’ I have been very clear that, yes, I do think so.”
The Conservatives are yet to criticise Lee Anderson’s “Islamists” rank against Sadiq Khan and London as racist.
The Prime Minister described the former Tory deputy chairman’s remarks as wrong and unacceptable but stopped short of branding them racist.
Mr Anderson was suspended from the Tory parliamentary party after he refused to apologies for the outburst on GB News which pays him £100,000-a-year as a presenter.
He later defected to Reform UK.
Ms Abbott, first elected as an MP in 1987, has sat as an independent since April after the Labour whip was withdrawn following comments she made in The Observer suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”.
Sir Keir Starmer is coming under pressure from senior Labour MPs to swiftly allow her to return to the parliamentary party but his aides insist he should not intervene in Labour’s independent disciplinary process.
She has apologised for her remarks.
