Into the Sewer

It’s long been observed that British politics is ‘circling the sewer’ but events of the past few days would suggest its already down the stank. As Michael Gove announced new definitions of ‘extremism’  it emerged that the Conservatives’ biggest donor – Frank Hester – had told colleagues that looking at Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”.

Just an ordinary day in Britain in 2024.

The extraordinary bile directed at Diane Abbott has long been documented, but we’re in new waters now. The response has not been disgust or revulsion or shame but to defend him.

As the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent Henry Zeffman put it today: “Frank Hester’s defence now has cabinet-level backing. Mel Stride tells broadcasters: “It’s clear that what he said was inappropriate. He has, as I understand it, apologised for those remarks. I think the critical point here is I don’t think what he was saying was a gender-based or a race-based comment, but it was clearly inappropriate. He has apologised and I think we need to move on from that.”

Move on.

Frank Hester has given £10m to the Tories in the past year, effectively bankrolling their general election campaign is, a party spokesperson confirmed its “biggest ever donor”. Hester is a Yorkshire who runs a healthcare technology firm, the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), which has been paid more than £400m by the NHS and other government bodies since 2016, primarily to look after 60m UK medical records. Separately he has profited from £135m of contracts with the Department of Health and Social Care in less than four years.

But Gove’s tightening the definition of ‘extremism’, right?

It’s worth noting he’s not denying he said any of these things. After the publication of the remarks, a statement from his company (TPP) said 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”. That’s him ‘being rude’.

The dark money sloshing about British politics is a disgrace, with unashamed corruption in open view.

Incredibly, the increasingly desperate Tories are resisting calls on them to return the money.

The Guardian newspaper quoted a 2019 meeting at TPP’s headquarters in which Hester spoke about an executive from another organisation, saying: “She’s shit. She’s the shittest person. Honestly I try not to be sexist but when I meet somebody like [the executive], I just …

“[The executive] and Diane Abbott need to be shot. She’s stupid … If we can get [the executive] being unprofessional we can get her sacked. It’s not as good as her dying. It would be much better if she died. She’s consuming resource. She’s eating food that other people could eat. You know?”

What’s beautifully stupid and truly mind-blowing is the context of this that the Conservatives (and others) have cultivated, that is inventing manufactured ‘extremism’ (in reality peaceful protest in opposition to war atrocities) and amplifying and exaggerating the threat to MPs (openly through the Speaker of the House) – then, when faced with a blatant actual case of racism and a threat to an MP – they pretend its not happening and tell us to ‘move on’.

It’s staggering staggering hypocrisy. As Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent Central said: “What Frank Hester said is clearly racist. Don’t pretend you care about MPs safety if you can’t call out racism. You want to give millions to someone who hates “all Black women”. Rishi Sunak must hand back his donations and rescind his Government contracts immediately!”

This feels like a line, a line after far too may lines have already been crossed over the past few years, after which you feel exhausted by the endlessly soiled nature of British politics.