Abbott accuses Tories of 'playing race card' as Hester row intensifies

Diane Abbott has accused the Conservatives of aiming to “play the race card” in the general election, saying the abuse she faced from the Tory donor Frank Hester epitomised this approach.

- Peter Walker, Richard Partington, Aletha Adu

In a comment piece for the Guardian, the veteran MP said Hester’s remarks had left her “upset but not surprised”, given the amount of racist abuse she receives.

Hester said in a 2019 meeting that seeing Abbott on TV meant “you just want to hate all black women because she’s there”. He also said that the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington “should be shot”.

But Abbott, the UK’s longestserving black MP, who sits as an independent after losing the Labour whip last year, said she was also owed an apology from Labour over abusive comments about her revealed in internal party messages.

Her comments came on a day Rishi Sunak fac ed pressure from senior Conservatives to return the £10m given to the party by Hester amid increasing disquiet over the donor’s comments about Abbott .

As a series of Tories broke ranks to call for the donation to be returned, Sunak said in the House of Commons that Hester had apologised for his remarks “and that remorse should be accepted”.

Abbott criticised the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, for not calling her during prime minister’s questions yesterday, after Sunak and Keir Starmer had discussed Hester’s comments about her in the chamber.

In reference to Hester’s remarks, she wrote that she was “hardened to racist abuse” , adding: “I receive hundreds of abusive emails, phone calls and letters monthly, and the numbers shoot up whenever I am in the media.