Rishi Sunak found again in between a rock and hard place

Politics is an expensive business, and parties don’t run on the good wishes of their voters.  

Getting the message out takes money, and while members’ subs can fill the coffers to a certain extent, when the big events – like General Elections – loom large on the horizon, deep pockets are required to cover the expected outgoings. 

To run a campaign you need cash, and there’s no substitute for money in the bank.

And so Rishi Sunak finds himself in a bind this week, pondering if money tainted by accusations of racism levelled at its source can be too toxic for his party to handle.  

In traditional ‘a week is a long time in politics’ fashion, the row blindsided the Prime Minister and Westminster when it suddenly broke.  

The Guardian newspaper’s exclusive had its genesis way back in the past. In 2019, the businessman Frank Hester, who runs The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), is alleged to have said that Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

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While obviously abhorrent on their own, the comments from five years ago proved to be a nightmare for Mr Sunak as Mr Hester is the Conservative Party’s largest-ever donor.  

Last year, he swelled the party’s bank balance by £10m, made up of £5m from his own personal wealth and £5m from his company.  

Now the Prime Minister is in a quandary, and it wasn’t long before his political opponents were queuing up to demand he do the right thing.  

Sir Keir Starmer described Mr Hester’s alleged comments as “racist and misogynistic”, twisting the knife during Prime Minister’s Questions to say: “What racist, woman-hating threat of violence would he have to make before the Prime Minister plucked up the courage to hand back the £10 million that he’s taken from him? 

“How low would he have to sink, what racist, woman-hating threat of violence would he have to make before the Prime Minister plucked up the courage to hand back the £10 million that he’s taken from him?” 

It’s a tough question, and one that Mr Sunak has struggled to answer. Soon politicians of every stripe joined in, from First Minister Humza Yousaf of the SNP saying the money should be handed back, to members of Mr Sunak’s own party. 

On Thursday it was the turn of Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, to give his view on the issue.  

The Moray MP said the alleged comments by Mr Hester about Ms Abbott were “racist, unacceptable and wrong”, although his thundering conviction faltered slightly when pressed on the money problem.  

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Mr Ross said: “The party at a UK level needs to look at that donation. I think most people would think it’s fair to allow a review to review the situation and look into it.” 

For his part, Frank Hester has offered a fulsome apology, including personally with two phone calls to Diane Abbott.  

A statement released through his firm said: “Frank Hester 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. 

“He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison which has no place in public life.” 

Mr Hester’s firm has benefitted hugely from contracts with the NHS and has been paid more than £400m by the health service and other government bodies since 2016. 

Frank Hester allegedly made racist and threatening remarks concerning Britain's first black female MP Diane Abbott (Image: PA)
According to The Guardian, the businessman has profited from £135m of contracts with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in less than four years. 

Sidestepping the oddly circular nature of all this – the taxpayer funding the NHS, which pays Mr Hesker’s TTP, who then donates to the Conservative Party, who award contracts on behalf of the NHS while in Government – Mr Sunak stands at a crossroads.

On one hand, the donation is now widely regarded as tainted, but on the other, he’s soon got a battle at the ballot box to strategise, and there aren’t too many £10m donations out there to fund the fight.  

Mr Sunak has described the alleged comments as racist, but said Mr Hester’s “remorse should be accepted” and resisted calls to return the businessman’s money. 

But this story hasn’t run its course yet, and perhaps the Prime Minister may end up deciding the cash doesn’t pass the smell test after all. 

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On Wednesday evening, Conservative peer and former Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose urged him to do just that, telling ITV’s Peston that the party should “probably” return the money. 

He said: “You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror at the end of every day and say have you done the right thing? Does it smell right? Does it look right? Does it feel right? 

“It doesn’t smell right, it doesn’t look right, it doesn’t feel right, and I think there’s a case to answer.”