The Labour Party's deputy national campaign coordinator says it is "appalling" that Tory donor Frank Hester has not had his donation returned to him, after he made allegedly racist and misogynistic comments about independent MP Diane Abbott. Ellie Reeves says the fact the party has not handed Mr Hester's money back is "really telling about how seriously the Conservatives treat racism". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 I'm appalled by the reports that in addition to the £10m that Frank Hester has already
00:05 donated to the Conservative Party, it sounds like there's another £5m that he's donated.
00:11 His comments about Diane Abbott were racist and misogynistic. He's not properly apologised
00:17 for them. I think he said that they're rude, but he's not accepted that they're racist
00:20 and misogynistic. The Conservative Party should be handing that money back and the fact that
00:26 they have failed to do so is frankly appalling.
00:28 Well, I don't think they should hand it back. His comments were racist and misogynistic
00:33 and presumably this money will go to fighting the general election. If I was a Conservative
00:39 candidate, I wouldn't want to be out delivering leaflets that's funded by his money. They
00:45 should come clean and just hand it back.
00:48 I think it's really telling about how seriously the Conservatives treat racism. The fact that
00:54 they haven't handed it back speaks volumes. They should do the right thing and give Frank
01:00 Hester the money back. His comments were racist, they were misogynistic and the Tory shouldn't
01:06 be using that money to fund their general election campaign.
01:08 There's an independent process going on at the moment in relation to comments that Diane
01:12 made and I think it's right and proper that that process takes its course. But, you know,
01:17 Diane has been a real trailblazer. She was the first black woman MP elected to Parliament
01:22 and she has tirelessly stood out against racism. So the fact that she's now under attack yet
01:29 again and suffering this appalling racism is, you know, just deeply concerning and upsetting.
01:36 But that's separate, I think, to this independent process that is currently going on.