The additional sum, not denied by the party or Downing Street, would take Hester’s contributions to Tory party coff ers in less than a year to £15m, almost as much as the Conservatives spent in the entire 2019 general election campaign.
There is disquiet among some Conservatives about the willingness to accept money from Hester, whose software firm has won lucrative NHS and prison contracts, after the Guardian revealed he told a 2019 meeting that seeing Abbott on TV made "you just want to hate all black women".
Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said yesterday the donations should be "looked at" by the party, with Sayeeda Warsi, the Tory peer and former party chair, saying the money should be returned.
Hester, who also said that Abbott, the UK's longest-serving black MP, "should be shot", gave £5m to the Tories in May 2023 and £5m more via his company, The Phoenix Partnership, which he formed and solely owns, in November.
According to the Tortoise website, he has given £5m more, which will be confirmed in the next Electoral Commission update of donations, due in early June.
A Conservative party spokesperson declined to comment, saying only: "Declarable donations will be published by the Electoral Commission in the usual way." No Tory or No 10 officials sought to deny the donation, however.
If confirmed, the £15m total will mean Hester alone has donated almost as much as the near-£16.5m spent by the party in their entire 2019 campaign .
This story is from the March 15, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the March 15, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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