Abbott criticises speaker over PMQs and asks Starmer to restore the whip – UK politics live
Abbott says Hoyle was not serving Commons or democracy when he failed to let her ask question at PMQs
Diane Abbott has posted a message on X saying Sir Lindsay Hoyle was not serving the interests of the Commons or democracy by not calling her to ask a question today at PMQs.
I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.
She has also posted a message on X saying this tweet, from my colleague Owen Jones, is true.
Keir Starmer approached Diane Abbott, conversation overhead went like this:
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do”
“You could restore the whip”
“I understand just let me know if there’s anything..”
“Restore the whip”
“I understand”
Abbott is currently suspended from the parliamentary Labour party because of a letter she wrote to the Observer almost a year ago that suggested that antisemitism wasn’t as serious as the racism suffered by black people, and that it was more akin to prejudice.
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Back at the Commons Treasury committee, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said that it was wrong to compare his proposal to get rid of employees’ national insurance to Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cuts. He said the national insurance proposal was a long-term plan. “It will be the work of many parliaments,” he said. And it would only happen “when it’s affordable to do so”.
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Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, has launched a scathing attack on the UK government’s handling of the Covid crisis but admitted his own administration should have taken “more stringent action” sooner as the pandemic swept the world. Steven Morris has the story.
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Diane Abbott has posted a message on X saying Sir Lindsay Hoyle was not serving the interests of the Commons or democracy by not calling her to ask a question today at PMQs.
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I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.https://t.co/W4vuBb18gD
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) March 13, 2024
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I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.
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She has also posted a message on X saying this tweet, from my colleague Owen Jones, is true.
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Keir Starmer approached Diane Abbott, conversation overhead went like this:
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do”
“You could restore the whip”
“I understand just let me know if there’s anything..”
“Restore the whip”
“I understand”
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) March 13, 2024
\n\n”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement”,”html”:”
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Keir Starmer approached Diane Abbott, conversation overhead went like this:
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do”
“You could restore the whip”
“I understand just let me know if there’s anything..”
“Restore the whip”
“I understand”
\n
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Abbott is currently suspended from the parliamentary Labour party because of a letter she wrote to the Observer almost a year ago that suggested that antisemitism wasn’t as serious as the racism suffered by black people, and that it was more akin to prejudice.
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Back at the Treasury committee, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, insists that the Tories’ long-term commitment to get rid of employees’ national insurance could be achieved without cuts to the NHS or pensions. At PMQs today, Keir Starmer insisted that policy would require cuts like that. (See 1.28am.)
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Hunt says when he announced the proposal, he was explicit about how it would be be funded by cuts to public services or borrowing.
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Downing Street has defended its decision to wait until late yesterday to describe Frank Hester’s comments about Diane Abbott as racist on the grounds it wanted to give the businessman time for a proper right of reply.
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At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, asked why it took so long to accept the comments were racist, the PM’s spokesperson said “it was right to give someone a proper right of reply” after “very serious allegations” were made.
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No 10 only issued its updated statement after Hester himself issued a statement yesterday afternoon in which he did not deny saying the words attributed to him.
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The PM’s spokesperson insisted today that Hester’s comments about Abbott remained “unverified” – even though Hester has not denied saying them. The spokesperson also declined to say whether No 10 has contacted Hester to ask him whether or not he made those comments.
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The PM’s press secretary, who deals with party political matters, said the Conservatives would not be returning the £10m given by Hester because he has apologised – but would not comment on whether a future donation from him might be accepted.
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At the Treasury committee Labour’s Angela Eagle is asking the questions now.
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Q: Were Frank Hester’s comments rude or racist?
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Hunt says it was “a despicable comment that should not have been made”. He says Hester has apologised.
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Q: He has only apologised for being rude. Should he apologise for being racist?
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Hunt says Hester has apologised for his comment, which he says he believes was racist.
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Q: If you were Tory treasurer, would you return the £10m?
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Hunt says:
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I don’t believe that someone should be cancelled for a comment they made in the past and for which they have apologised.
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But that does not make the comments any less despicable and I don’t defend them.
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Q: Is it realistic to think that Britain will ever see a sustained reduction in debt as a proportion of GDP, taking it to pre-pandemic levels?
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Hunt says it will be “a long and difficult journey”, but that “it’s right that we try”.
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Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has just started giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.
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Harriett Baldwin, the Conservative chair, put it to him that he cannot have been happy to see the news that he was cutting national insurance by 2p in the pound in the papers beforehand.
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Hunt said he was not happy about that. “It wasn’t an intentional leak,” he said.
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But he said it was getting “very difficult” to stop leaks.
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He said journalists would ring up the Treasury saying they would run a story about a budget measure unless it was explicitly denied. The Treasury does not like to reply, he said. So journalists take a gamble, he said.
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He said some of the reports said a measure would be in the budget before the final decision had been taken.
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Asked what budget measures had been pre-briefed by the Treasury, Hunt said none of the “principle measures” were leaked in advance.
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A spokesperson for Sir Lindsay Hoyle has defended the speaker’s decision not to call Diane Abbott at PMQs. (See 12.46pm) The spokesperson said:
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During prime minister’s questions, the speaker must select MPs from either side of the house on an alternating basis for fairness.
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This takes place within a limited timeframe, with the chair prioritising members who are already listed on the order paper.
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This week – as is often the case – there was not enough time to call all members who wanted to ask a question.
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The Scottish Conservative party has urged the UK party based in London to “review” its decision to take money from Frank Hester.
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After the Scottish Labour party challenged the Scottish Tories to say if they had ever received money from Hester, a spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives said:
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These comments were racist and wrong.
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The Scottish Conservative Party has never accepted a donation from Frank Hester and the UK Conservative Party should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks.
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When something is indefensible, that means you cannot defend it. Frank Hester’s comments about Diane Abbott as reported in the Guardian are indefensible and so it is no surprise that Rishi Sunak got hammered by Keir Starmer today when the Labour leader brought the topic up. To be fair, Sunak would have been in even more trouble if he had not been willing to adopt the line that the remarks were racist. (See 11.16am.) But this was a day when a drubbing was inevitable, and so it panned out.
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(The only fail-proof escape option would have been for Sunak and the Tories to have disowned Hester completely on Monday night, and returned his money. But this was never likely, partly because they have probably spent it already, but mainly because tactics like that would outrage and alarm almost the entire Tory donor community, some of whom may also have said things in private they would not want to read in the Guardian.)
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Although the broad outline of PMQs was predictable, there were two features that were interesting, and that could have important repercussions for the general election campaign.
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First, on the basis of today’s exchanges, it is probably safe to say we have reached the point where Jeremy Corbyn extremism arguments are unequivocally helping Starmer. Even when Boris Johnson was trying to discredit Starmer on the grounds that he campaigned to make Corbyn PM, it was a weak line because voters know that MPs will toe the party line in an election campaign without necessarily thinking their leader is wonderful, and it is obvious that Starmer isn’t a Corbynite leftie. But today, every time Rishi Sunak tried this line of attack, it only set Starmer up for an even more powerful response. We got two of them. Echoing Tony Blair’s line to John Major (“I lead my party, he follows his”), Starmer said:
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The difference is, he’s scared of his party, I’ve changed my party.
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And then, in his next response, he said:
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The problem is that he’s describing a Labour party that no longer exists.
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Like all the best political soundbites, these ones work because they are in essence true.
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And, second, we may have seen the first clear evidence today that Jeremy Hunt’s decision in the budget to propose the eventual abolition of national insurance was a blunder. Today we saw this debated in the cut-and-thrust of PMQs, a particularly good testing ground for political messaging, and Sunak was trying to use the proposal as a means of laying down an election dividing line: Tories, committed to lower taxes over time, versus Labour, who aren’t.
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But a tax cut worth £46bn is implausible, and Starmer’s question about whether this meant pension cuts or NHS cuts (see 2.11pm) was an inherently more persuasive proposition. Starmer’s ability to cite the £46bn figure also blunted Sunak’s point about Labour’s supposed commitment to an unfunded £28bn green energy plan (which hasn’t functioned well as a message anyway since Starmer said it was not happening).
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Marsha de Cordova (Lab) says last year Sunak accept a £15,000 non-cash donation from Frank Hester for the use of a helicopter. Will he reimburse that?
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No, says Sunak. He says Hester is supporting a party with a diverse cabinet and the first British Asian PM.
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Keir Starmer starts with a tribute to Tommy McAvoy, the former Labour whip who has died. And he praises Theresa May for serving the Commons “with a real sense of duty”.
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Is the PM proud to be bankrolled by someone saying Diane Abbottt “makes you want to hate all black woman”.
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Sunak says these comments were wrong and racist, and Frank Hester has expressed remorse.
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UPDATE: Starmer said:
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\n
Is the prime minister proud to be bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynistic language when he says the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington [Diane Abbott] ‘makes you want to hate all black women?’
\n
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And Sunak replied:
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\n
The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist, he has rightly apologised for them and that remorse should be accepted.
\n
There is no place for racism in Britain, and the government I lead is living proof of that.
\n
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Rishi Sunak will be taking PMQs at 12pm. With Lee Anderson defecting to Reform UK on Monday, the row about Frank Hester dominating the news yesterday and today, and both stories leading to allegations about Sunak being over tolerant of racism, it is likely to be an even more rowdy session than usual.
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Sunak leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs.”,”caption”:”Rishi Sunak leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1710330657000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.50 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1710330862000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.54 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1710330862000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.54 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.54″,”title”:”Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 13 Mar 2024 11.38 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 13 Mar 2024 04.48 EDT”},{“id”:”65f18ecc8f0836980f1afe54″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
People whose application for asylum gets turned down will be offered thousands of pounds to encourage them to move to Rwanda under a new voluntary scheme drawn up by ministers, Aubrey Allegretti and Matt Dathan are reporting in the Times.
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THE TIMES: Rwanda plan will offer migrants £3000 to leave #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/F3Vpl6jWzk
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) March 12, 2024
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In their story Allegretti and Dathan report:
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The new agreement is designed to remove tens of thousands of migrants who have no right to stay in the UK but cannot be returned to their home country.
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Under plans backed by No 10, migrants could instead opt to be sent to Rwanda, which the UK government deems a safe third country.
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It will utilise the existing structures under the scheme agreed with Rwanda, which has been stalled by legal challenges since it was announced in April 2022 …
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Under the voluntary returns schemes, [failed asylum seekers] can currently receive financial assistance worth up to £3,000 to return to their “country of origin”.
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However, the new Rwanda deal is the first of its kind because it would mark the first time migrants were paid to leave the UK without going back to their country of origin.
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The Home Office told the Times it was “exploring voluntary relocations for those who have no right to be here to Rwanda”. It stressed that this was in addition to the provisions in the Rwanda bill that is intended to allow people arriving in the UK on small boats to be forcibly removed to Rwanda.
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But Labour said the new plan was an admission that the current Rwanda policy won’t work. Commenting on the Times story, Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, said:
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Even government ministers are finally recognising that their Rwanda scheme has no chance of succeeding, so they’re resorting to paying people to go there instead.
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We know from the treaty that capacity in Rwanda is very limited, so ministers should now explain what this new idea means for the scheme as it was originally conceived, and they should also make clear how many people they expect to send on this basis, and what the cost will be.
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There have been so many confused briefings around the Rwanda policy that the public will be forgiven for treating this latest wheeze with a degree of scepticism.
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Nusrat Ghani, a business minister, has posted a message on X this morning saying zero tolerance of racism should be more than a slogan.
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Zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in todays politics.
Am reminded of Toni Morrison’s quote
‘The people who do this thing, who practice racism, are bereft.
That is something distorted about the psyche. It’s a huge waste and it’s a corruption and a distortion’— Nus Ghani MP (@Nus_Ghani) March 13, 2024
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Zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in todays politics.
Am reminded of Toni Morrison’s quote
‘The people who do this thing, who practice racism, are bereft.
That is something distorted about the psyche. It’s a huge waste and it’s a corruption and a distortion’\n
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Ghani does not mention the Frank Hester controversy in her post, but it is not hard to spot that this might just be a reference to the way No 10 spent most of yesterday trying to avoid saying that Hester’s comments about Diane Abbott as reported in the Guardian were racist.
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Downing Street probably won’t like this much. But at least Ghani knows that her departmental boss, Kemi Badenoch, will be on her side. Late yesterday afternoon Badenoch posted her own messages on X saying the remarks as reported were racist, and it appears that her intervention prompted No 10 to get off the fence and put out its own statement later saying the comments “allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong”. This is not the first time Badenoch has taken the lead on a story of the day only for Rishi Sunak to weigh in behind.
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Hester has issued a statement saying he accepts he was “rude” about Abbott in a private meeting, but that “his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.
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The chances of the UK quickly emerging from recession have been boosted by the release of figures showing the economy grew by 0.2% in January, Larry Elliott reports.
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Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, has said he would not take money from Frank Hester. (See 10.40am.) But he is facing calls to clarify whether he has benefitted from Hester’s money, as the mayor has received over £300,000 in monthly donations from the Conservative party in recent years.
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Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, Birmingham’s first black MP, has written to Street asking him to clarify whether he has benefited “directly or indirectly”.
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I have written to @andy4wm to confirm that he has not received any donations, directly or indirectly, from @Conservatives donor Frank Hester.
Racism must be called out in all forms, and I sincerely hope the Conservative Party will do the right thing and return his donations. pic.twitter.com/kPcBrUYrfz
— Paulette Hamilton MP (@PauletteHamilto) March 13, 2024
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Hamilton said:
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I am sure you can understand that words can’t describe how I feel about the awful, racist remarks made by Mr Hester about Diane Aboott MP.
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In recent months and years you have received regular monthly donations from the Conservative party, likely to have totalled millions of pounds. It is therefore possible that you have benefitted from monthly money received by the Conservative party’s largest ever donor, Frank Hester.
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Hamilton said that while Street may have received the donations “in good faith”, now that he is aware of Hester’s remarks, “anything less than returning these donations would be a damning indictment of you and your party”.
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She also asked Street if he would be “making representations to his party to request the donations are returned”.
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Hester has issued a statement saying he accepts he was “rude” about Abbott in a private meeting, but that “his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.
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Hamilton.”,”caption”:”Paulette Hamilton.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1710326853000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”06.47 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1710329438000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.30 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1710327204000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.53 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.53″,”title”:”Labour MP challenges Street to say if he indirectly received funding from Hester and, if so, if he will return it”,”contributors”:[{“name”:”Jessica Murray”,”imageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/11/08/Jessica_Murray_.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c5ed98ed022ccdf6fae9d2f0debed3fc”,”largeImageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/11/08/Jessica_Murray__Next_Gen.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c3bd8940e24aabb950fcb6109ba6af1d”}],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 13 Mar 2024 11.38 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 13 Mar 2024 04.48 EDT”},{“id”:”65f181f78f0836980f1afdc4″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, has said that he personally would return a £10m donation from Frank Hester. Asked if the party should return the money, he told the Today programme:
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I would think about the company I kept and I would give that money back.
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I have to give you my view, rather than what the party should do, but I’ve thought about how I would handle that situation.
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Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up from Sammy Gecsoyler.
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Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, did not just say that he did not think the Tories would be returning the £10m they have received from Frank Hester in his interviews this morning. (See 8.48am.) In an interview with BBC Breakfast, he even suggested that the party might take more money from Hester.
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As PA Media reports, asked on whether the Conservatives would take another £10 million from Hester, Hollinrake said:
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On the basis that we don’t think Mr Hester is a racist, yes.
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Asked to clarify that the Tories would accept further money from the businessman, the minister said: “As I now understand the situation, yes.”
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Hollinrake was on the media round because today the government is publishing the legislation to exonerate post office operators who were wrongly jailed as a result of the Horizon IT scandal. Eleni Courea has a preview here.
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I’m afraid we are having to keep the comments off for the moment. That is because the Guardian is legally liable for what gets published in the comments section and, as soon as our original Frank Hester story was published, we started getting a tonne of comments that, unlike the Guardian report, had not been libel-proofed by lawyers. The moderators remove problematic posts, but they don’t have the capacity to do this when dozens of difficult comments are going up minute by minute, and so to avoid risk we have to close comments down.
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We will get them back up when we can. In the meantime, I have opened the ‘send us a message’ function.
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The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have released a joint statement warning that Michael Gove’s new defintion of extremism could cause further “division” and threaten the country’s “rich diversity”.
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Gove is set to unveil the government’s new definition of extremism on Thursday and use parliamentary privilege to name groups that he says fall foul of this new definition, despite pushback from government lawyers who have warned about the legal implications of doing so.
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The move comes after Rishi Sunak said in a speech outside No 10 earlier this month that there had been “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” since 7 October, in comments seen as a thinly veiled attack on pro-Palestine demonstrations. Gove previously told the Sunday Telegraph that “good-hearted people” who have taken part in marches should be aware they could be “lending credence” to extremists.
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In a joint statement, the Most Reverend Justin Welby and the Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell said the “growing division between different communities in this country” is a threat to the country’s “rich diversity”.
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They said:
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How our leaders respond to this is far too important for a new definition of extremism to be its cure.
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Instead of providing clarity or striking a conciliatory tone, we think labelling a multi-faceted problem as hateful extremism may instead vilify the wrong people and risk yet more division.
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The new definition being proposed not only inadvertently threatens freedom of speech, but also the right to worship and peaceful protest – things that have been hard won and form the fabric of a civilised society.
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Crucially, it risks disproportionately targeting Muslim communities, who are already experiencing rising levels of hate and abuse.
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We are concerned – like so many others – by its implications for public life.
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We join calls for the government to reconsider its approach and instead have a broad-based conversation with all those who it will affect.
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The UK has a proud history of welcoming people from all walks of life and celebrating diversity. We are a community of communities.
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Our leaders should cherish and promote that – and pursue policies that bring us together, not risk driving us apart.
\n
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Labour’s shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said he found it “absolutely astonishing” that the Conservative party “won’t pay this £10m back” that was donated by Frank Hester last year.
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Asked on Sky News about the length of time it took Downing Street to brand Hester’s reported remarks about Diane Abbott as racist, Ashworth said:
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I thought it was absolutely staggering. It took Rishi Sunak 24 hours to condemn these racist, reprehensible comments about Diane Abbott.
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I think that shows how weak Rishi Sunak is. You will remember a couple of weeks ago it took him a while to take on, now the Reform MP, Lee Anderson for Islamophobic comments. He should have been out there condemning these comments immediately.
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But, fundamentally, he has taken £10m from this individual. Every Tory MP and candidate handing out leaflets, paying for Facebook advertising – it is funded by this £10m from this individual who has made these deeply racist, offensive comments.
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If Rishi Sunak had anything about him, if he had any backbone, he would pay that money back today.
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But, actually, you have had a Conservative minister on the BBC just a few moments ago saying they would take another £10m from this individual. I think that just shows you how weak and how desperate the Tory party have become under Rishi Sunak.
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A statement from the healthcare technology firm the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), which Hester runs, said he “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”.
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Good morning. Sammy Gecsoyler on the blog here until 10am GMT.
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The fallout from comments made by top Tory donor Frank Hester, who said looking at Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”, continues.
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On Tuesday night, No 10 called the comments “racist and wrong” after mounting pressure. Earlier in the day, government ministers had suggested Hester’s comments were not related to Abbott’s race and gender.
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The party have faced calls, including from Labour, to return a £10m donation Hester made to the Conservative party last year.
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On Wednesday morning, a government minister suggested the party would not return the money.
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Asked on Sky News whether the Tories should give back Hester’s money, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said:
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I don’t think that is the right thing to do …
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I think his comments were clearly racist and wrong, there is no question about that. You don’t judge somebody’s character based on their skin colour.
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He has apologised for that. I don’t think that means Frank Hester is necessarily a racist.
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Asked whether he would be comfortable spending Hester’s donations, Hollinrake said: “On the basis he is not a racist, has apologised for what he said, yes.”
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After the publication of the donor’s remarks, a statement from the healthcare technology firm the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), which Hester runs, said he “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”.
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The statement said Hester “abhorred” racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.
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The statement added: “He rang Diane Abbott twice today to try to apologise directly for the hurt he has caused her, and is deeply sorry for his remarks. He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison, which has no place in public life.”
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TPP’s lawyers have previously said the comments were not a true or accurate characterisation of the company or Hester.
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Key events
Government to ban foreign governments from owning British newspapers, in move to halt UAE-backed bid for Telegraph
The UK government plans to introduce legislation that would prevent foreign governments owning UK newspapers and magazines in a move that could scupper the planned £600m sale of the Telegraph to a UAE-backed consortium, Jane Croft reports.
Hunt says plan to get rid of employees’ national insurance ‘will be work of many parliaments’ and not like Liz Truss’s tax cuts
Back at the Commons Treasury committee, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said that it was wrong to compare his proposal to get rid of employees’ national insurance to Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cuts. He said the national insurance proposal was a long-term plan. “It will be the work of many parliaments,” he said. And it would only happen “when it’s affordable to do so”.
The Department for Business and Trade has published its Post Office (Horizon system) offences bill.
In a statement to MPs, Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, said under the bill convictions of post office operators found guilty on the basis of Horizon evidence would be quashed “on the day that the new legislation is brought into force”, with the aim of it reaching the end of its journey through parliament by the summer recess.
Boris Johnson ‘largely absent’ early in Covid crisis, Welsh leader tells inquiry
Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, has launched a scathing attack on the UK government’s handling of the Covid crisis but admitted his own administration should have taken “more stringent action” sooner as the pandemic swept the world. Steven Morris has the story.
Abbott says Hoyle was not serving Commons or democracy when he failed to let her ask question at PMQs
Diane Abbott has posted a message on X saying Sir Lindsay Hoyle was not serving the interests of the Commons or democracy by not calling her to ask a question today at PMQs.
I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.
She has also posted a message on X saying this tweet, from my colleague Owen Jones, is true.
Keir Starmer approached Diane Abbott, conversation overhead went like this:
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do”
“You could restore the whip”
“I understand just let me know if there’s anything..”
“Restore the whip”
“I understand”
Abbott is currently suspended from the parliamentary Labour party because of a letter she wrote to the Observer almost a year ago that suggested that antisemitism wasn’t as serious as the racism suffered by black people, and that it was more akin to prejudice.
Hunt claims getting rid of national insurance would not require cuts to NHS or pensions.
Back at the Treasury committee, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, insists that the Tories’ long-term commitment to get rid of employees’ national insurance could be achieved without cuts to the NHS or pensions. At PMQs today, Keir Starmer insisted that policy would require cuts like that. (See 1.28am.)
Hunt says when he announced the proposal, he was explicit about how it would be be funded by cuts to public services or borrowing.
No 10 says it delayed calling Hester’s comments racist to allow time for ‘proper right of reply’
Downing Street has defended its decision to wait until late yesterday to describe Frank Hester’s comments about Diane Abbott as racist on the grounds it wanted to give the businessman time for a proper right of reply.
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, asked why it took so long to accept the comments were racist, the PM’s spokesperson said “it was right to give someone a proper right of reply” after “very serious allegations” were made.
No 10 only issued its updated statement after Hester himself issued a statement yesterday afternoon in which he did not deny saying the words attributed to him.
The PM’s spokesperson insisted today that Hester’s comments about Abbott remained “unverified” – even though Hester has not denied saying them. The spokesperson also declined to say whether No 10 has contacted Hester to ask him whether or not he made those comments.
The PM’s press secretary, who deals with party political matters, said the Conservatives would not be returning the £10m given by Hester because he has apologised – but would not comment on whether a future donation from him might be accepted.
Hunt says Hester’s comments about Abbott ‘despicable’ – but says he does not deserve to be ‘cancelled’
At the Treasury committee Labour’s Angela Eagle is asking the questions now.
Q: Were Frank Hester’s comments rude or racist?
Hunt says it was “a despicable comment that should not have been made”. He says Hester has apologised.
Q: He has only apologised for being rude. Should he apologise for being racist?
Hunt says Hester has apologised for his comment, which he says he believes was racist.
Q: If you were Tory treasurer, would you return the £10m?
Hunt says:
I don’t believe that someone should be cancelled for a comment they made in the past and for which they have apologised.
But that does not make the comments any less despicable and I don’t defend them.
Hunt says getting debt as proportion of GDP down to pre-pandemic levels will be ‘long and difficult journey’
Q: Is it realistic to think that Britain will ever see a sustained reduction in debt as a proportion of GDP, taking it to pre-pandemic levels?
Hunt says it will be “a long and difficult journey”, but that “it’s right that we try”.
Hunt says Treasury did not leak news about 2p national insurance cut in budget
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has just started giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.
Harriett Baldwin, the Conservative chair, put it to him that he cannot have been happy to see the news that he was cutting national insurance by 2p in the pound in the papers beforehand.
Hunt said he was not happy about that. “It wasn’t an intentional leak,” he said.
But he said it was getting “very difficult” to stop leaks.
He said journalists would ring up the Treasury saying they would run a story about a budget measure unless it was explicitly denied. The Treasury does not like to reply, he said. So journalists take a gamble, he said.
He said some of the reports said a measure would be in the budget before the final decision had been taken.
Asked what budget measures had been pre-briefed by the Treasury, Hunt said none of the “principle measures” were leaked in advance.
Speaker’s office defends Hoyle’s decision not to call Diane Abbott at PMQs
A spokesperson for Sir Lindsay Hoyle has defended the speaker’s decision not to call Diane Abbott at PMQs. (See 12.46pm) The spokesperson said:
During prime minister’s questions, the speaker must select MPs from either side of the house on an alternating basis for fairness.
This takes place within a limited timeframe, with the chair prioritising members who are already listed on the order paper.
This week – as is often the case – there was not enough time to call all members who wanted to ask a question.
Scottish Tories urge UK party based in London to ‘review’ donations from Hester
The Scottish Conservative party has urged the UK party based in London to “review” its decision to take money from Frank Hester.
After the Scottish Labour party challenged the Scottish Tories to say if they had ever received money from Hester, a spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives said:
These comments were racist and wrong.
The Scottish Conservative Party has never accepted a donation from Frank Hester and the UK Conservative Party should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks.