This is the Tory party now: so devoid of values and leadership it can’t respond to blatantly racist remarks | Martin Kettle

Sunak should have immediately returned Frank Hester’s £10m. The PM’s speech about hate suddenly seems a long time ago

As racist, misogynist and generally incitement provoking remarks go, Frank Hester’s are not even borderline. Looking at Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women”, he told a meeting at his healthcare technology firm in 2019. “I think she should be shot … It would be much better if she died.”

Not exactly nuanced, is it? Not much light and shade there. And it was not just about Abbott, this country’s first black female MP, though that was already more than enough. It was also about his company’s Chinese workers, its Indian workers, and about Malaysians, not just on one occasion but on several. Was it racist? If the word means anything, which it does, then of course the remarks were racist, even if the man himself says he abhors racism.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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