Rishi Sunak is facing questions about his relationship with Frank Hester (Picture: Rex/PA)
The prime minister is facing questions about the extent of his relationship with Frank Hester after visiting his Leeds offices on a £16,000 helicopter trip on the Tory donor’s dime.
Rishi Sunak allegedly visited Mr Hester’s offices last year, raising questions about whether the businessman’s £10 million donations to the Conservative Party have bought him access to the PM.
Mr Hester has come under fire after comments he allegedly made about Labour MP Diane Abbott became public. He said she made him want to ‘hate all black women’ and ‘should be shot’.
Mr Sunak has faced criticism for only describing those remarks as ‘racist’ after Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch broke ranks and described them as such.
Yesterday a huge rally was held outside the Home Office in support of Diane Abbott, who described the remarks made by Hester as ‘frightening’.
And it’s now been reported by the Guardian that Mr Hester paid Mr Sunak’s £16,000 travel costs to visit his company offices by private helicopter and receive a tour.
Rishi Sunak is facing calls to explain his connections with Hester (Picture: Paul Marriott/Shutterstock)
Frank Hester has apologised for his ‘rude’ comments (Picture: CHOGM Rwanda 2022/YouTube/PA Wire)
The visit reportedly came around three weeks after Mr Hester’s software firm, the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), gave a second £5 million tranche to Mr Sunak’s party last November.
He had already individually donated £5 million in May while another £5 million is reportedly on the table.
Mr Sunak was pictured meeting small business owners at a jewellery studio in Farsley, West Yorkshire, on November 23.
He visited TPP’s offices in Leeds for around an hour later that day, the Guardian reported, citing unnamed sources.
No 10 declined to comment on the Prime Minister’s ‘private meetings’.
Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: ‘Everyone can see that Frank Hester’s disgusting remarks were clearly racist and misogynistic. Rishi Sunak keeping these millions is inexcusable.
‘There are serious questions to answer on Rishi Sunak’s close relationship with Frank Hester.
‘The prime minister must urgently confirm what was discussed, and whether Frank Hester’s contract running over 60% of confidential UK health data or government AI policy came up.
‘And Rishi Sunak needs to grow a backbone, pay this money back, cut ties and deal with the extreme views that appear to be tolerated in his party.’
Diane Abbott called the comments ‘frightening’ (Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
She attended the ‘Stand With Abbott Rally’ outside the Home Office on Friday (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
A No 10 source said: ‘Donations such as for flights are all publicly available in his declarations of interest. Wouldn’t get into his private meetings.’
Mr Hester has apologised for making ‘rude’ comments about Ms Abbott, the first black woman elected to parliament, but claimed they had ‘nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin’.
The Prime Minister has insisted the donor’s ‘remorse should be accepted’ as he resisted calls to hand back his £10 million donations.
Ms Abbott on Friday said ‘no Conservative has apologised’ to her after the emergence of Mr Hester’s 2019 verbal attack – and she was ignored by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle more than 40 times when trying to speak about the row in the House of Commons.
The veteran MP told Channel 4 News: ‘They keep saying that the Hester guy, he’s apologised. He’s not apologised.
‘He’s apologised for being rude, whereas in fact he was racist, and he’s not apologised for that.
‘In fact, he was inciting violence. He’s not apologised for that.’
Mark Harper insists Mr Sunak will still be PM when we go to the polls (Picture: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
Meanwhile, a Cabinet minister has insisted that Mr Sunak will lead the Tories into this year’s general election – whenever that may be – amid reports of a plot to kick him out of the top job.
With many Tories increasingly concerned about losing their seats, there have been claims that some MPs are considering replacing Mr Sunak with Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt before the nation goes to the polls.
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Asked whether Mr Sunak will still be Tory leader at the election, Mark Harper told Sky News: ‘Yes he will. He will take us into that election and he will set out very clearly that we’re a government with a plan.
‘I’m going to be supporting him all the way through, and I’m confident that my colleagues will.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Downing Street for further comment.
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