The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has told a parliamentary committee that Frank Hester's comments about the MP Diane Abbott were despicable but defended the decision by the Conservatives to continue accepting donations from the businessman. Hunt said: 'I don’t believe that someone should be cancelled for a comment they made in the past and for which they have apologised.' Hester, who is the Tories’ biggest donor, said in a 2019 meeting that he did not hate all black women but that seeing Abbott on TV meant 'you just want to hate all black women because she’s there'.
