A serving minister has said that zero tolerance on racism “is just a slogan in today’s politics” in what appears to be a swipe at the government’s handling of comments made by a Conservative donor.
Rishi Sunak took the whole of Tuesday to call out the remarks from businessman Frank Hester, first reported in The Guardian — eventually saying they were “racist and wrong”.
On Monday, Hester, the chief executive of The Phoenix Partnership, said he was “deeply sorry” following reports he said former Labour MP Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all black women”.
‘We need to move on’: Minister calls time on row over donor’s Diane Abbott comments
He also reportedly said that Abbott, who remains suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party, “should be shot”.
Ministers initially referred to Hester’s comments as “wrong” and “inappropriate”, before the prime minister’s spokesperson declared on Tuesday evening that they were “racist”.
It came after business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch labelled the comments as “racist” in a post on X/Twitter.
This was during the period when the government was referring to the remarks as merely “wrong”.
However, Badenoch — who also serves as women and equalities minister — added that there should be “space for forgiveness”.
Speaking on the media round this morning, business minister Kevin Hollinrake said he did not believe his party’s biggest donor is a racist, despite the alleged comments he made about Diane Abbott.
Hollinrake repeated the PM’s criticism, telling Sky News that the alleged comments were “clearly racist and wrong and there’s no question… you don’t judge somebody’s character based upon their skin colour”.
However, he added: “I think the key thing now is, is Mr Hester himself a racist? I don’t believe so from what I know, and I don’t know him.
“But I think in the context of what we know in the situation that we know right now, we should try and move on from this now, and I think that’s the right thing to do.”
In an apparent rebuke of the government’s position, fellow business minister Nus Ghani has now said that “Zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in todays politics”.
In a post on X/Twitter, she said: “Zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in todays politics. [I am] reminded of Toni Morrison’s quote:
‘The people who do this thing, who practice racism, are bereft. That is something distorted about the psyche. It’s a huge waste and it’s a corruption and a distortion’”.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.
