Hunt says Tory donor’s remarks were racist but defends party taking money



Hunt says Tory donor’s remarks were racist but defends party taking money

But if you were a treasurer of the conservative party would you return the 10 million pound that this man has donated to the conservative party well um I’m not treasurer of the conservative party but um I don’t believe that someone should be cancelled for a comment they made in the past and for

Which they have apologized but that does not make the comments any less Dispicable and I don’t defend them so you’re happy to accept the money but you don’t defend the comments I think the comments are despicable and I also think that uh the conservative party’s record on these issues speaks for itself uh

With the first uh ethnic minority prime minister uh an incredibly diverse cabinet I’m incredibly proud of what my party has done to increase diversity and we stand on that record but in financial services and that sector we have um we have regulations about FR fit and proper

Persons do you think that uh this man is a fit and proper person to be in receipt of so many hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers money well um I’m not going to defend his comments as I said to you I think they were despicable and wrong um and he’s apologized for

Them and I don’t think that uh uh the contracts that you talk about uh my understanding is that most of them were granted long before uh those comments were made but that is really irrelevant the point is those comments were wrong they were racist he’s apologized for to

Them I think we should accept that apology um and uh I think that’s really all I there should be consequences for that having that kind of view or behaving in that manner if you’re rich or you’re a company owner there should be no consequences I think that you know

The consequences in terms of public uh shaming of what he’s done have been pretty significant actually and he has apologized it’s been referred to the police as well so

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has told a parliamentary committee that Frank Hester’s comments about the MP Diane Abbott were despicable but defended the decision by the Conservatives to continue accepting donations from the businessman.
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Hunt said: ‘I don’t believe that someone should be cancelled for a comment they made in the past and for which they have apologised.’ Hester, who is the Tories’ biggest donor, said in a 2019 meeting that he did not hate all black women but that seeing Abbott on TV meant ‘you just want to hate all black women because she’s there’.

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42 comments
  1. Just so happens this rascist Tory donor was awarded 100s of millions in government contracts!!
    Completely normal for the Tory Party

  2. What does "cancelling" even mean? Letting people who get government contracts donate to the same party who has given him those contracts shouldn't be allowed.

    Also, didn't apologize for saying something racist, he apologized for being "rude".

  3. Hang on didn’t rishi say “we can’t let our MP’s be threatened “ ? Is the Tory party saying so long as you say you’re sorry you can be a racist ? Can’t be worse than arming the only racist battalion in the world not seen since ww2 . Somehow the government can’t find azov videos of how proud they are being racists . Considering rishi isn’t white he sure loves to turn a blind eye to racists when he gets his backhanders .

  4. The Tories acknowledge the comments were racist but see no need to return the bribe / donation. But Hester's comments were worse than racist as he is reported to have said a sitting MP should be shot. 2 x MP's were murdered in recent years and the House recently discussed the threat to MP's. Rank hypocrisy from Hunt and Sunak.

  5. This is a hate crime but because he said he's sorry and he us rich he can get away with it but if a poor person said it you will be arrested.

  6. …. subtext, what the man said was bad and he should have known better than to voice his opinion in front of people he couldn’t trust.
    ….. but 10 million quid is serious money and there is no way whatsoever we are giving that back!

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