Rishi Sunak might be remembered for “presiding over a terribly racist period within the party”, a former Tory chairwoman has mentioned.
In a scathing assault on the PM, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi warned he’ll combat a “toxic” election if he fails to return hundreds of thousands of kilos to businessman Frank Hester. Mr Sunak is below mounting strain to offer again greater than £10million after it emerged Mr Hester allegedly made racist remarks about Diane Abbott.
Baroness Warsi instructed Times Radio: “They’ve got to give the money back. You don’t build election campaigns and you don’t build political parties on the back of money where an individual has these views.
“I imply, for my part, if any election that’s constructed upon cash, which in itself relies upon form of these divisive, poisonous views, it will result in divisive, poisonous election campaigns. And I do know that the get together has greater than sufficient cash to have the ability to give again this £10 million donation.”
(
Getty)
She added that though many had celebrated “the moment when we had a prime minister of colour”, the optimism had fallen flat. Baroness Warsi mentioned: “I think, tragically, his tenure will be remembered as him presiding over a terribly racist period within the party.”
It comes as Communities Secretary Michael Gove introduced a brand new definition of extremism can be used to determine if organisations are blacklisted. Baroness Warsi mentioned: “If you look at what he’s trying to do via this definition, it is trying to find a frame of words which allows us to act in a much more authoritarian way.
“So if we will actually defend our freedoms by being extra authoritarian, have we really misplaced the battle? I do not consider that our democracy is so fragile that protests, on a difficulty the place folks of their minds are protesting for peace, goes to undermine the very cloth of our democracy.”
The Tories declared £10million in donations from Mr Hester, but it’s now emerged they accepted even more. But Mr Hester has donated more cash to the Tories since January – reportedly around £5million, a figure the Tories did not deny.
In a meeting in 2019, Mr Hester said seeing Ms Abbott on TV made him “need to hate all Black girls” and that she should be “shot”, according to the Guardian. He apologised for being rude but denied his comments had anything to do with her race or her gender.
At PMQs, Mr Sunak said: “The gentleman apologised genuinely for his comments and that remorse should be accepted.”