Kemi Badenoch dismisses race row over £10million Tory donor as ‘trivial’
KEMI Badenoch has dismissed the race row over a £10 million Tory donor as “trivial.”
Despite calling Frank Hester’s comments about Diane Abbott racist last week, the Business Secretary played down the row last night.
And Rishi Sunak also dodged questions over whether the party would accept further cash from him.
The millionaire businessman sparked uproar after a comment from 2019 surfaced that called for the prominent Labour MP to be shot.
But Badenoch hit out: “If you’ve accepted someone’s apology, you’ve accepted their apology.
“I don’t think that we should be spending this amount of time worrying about what Frank Hester is going to do… these are not comments that he made recently. They are historical comments.”
And she defended the PM’s decision to keep the donation after Hester apoligised for being rude.
She told Times Radio, adding: “We’re accepting and keeping the 10 million that will continue for whatever donations he wishes to make unless something new comes in that changes the situation.
“I don’t think it’s that complicated.”
Asked whether the party would accept another £5 million from Mr Hester on top of the £10 million already donated, Mr Sunak said: “He’s already apologised for these comments.
“And my point of view is when someone apologises genuinely, expresses remorse – that should be accepted. And that’s that.”