LABOUR’S Jonathan Ashworth said it is “absolutely staggering” that the Prime Minister took so long to condemn racist comments by Tory party donor Frank Hester.
Asked if the Tories should hand back the £10 million he has donated to the Conservatives, the Shadow Paymaster General told GB News: “They absolutely should hand that money back. I think the comments were racist, reprehensible.
“It’s absolutely staggering that Rishi Sunak took so long to condemn them, but we do know he's a very weak leader, but he now needs to show some backbone and give this £10 million back.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “Every single Tory candidate, every Tory MP who is delivering leaflets, who's putting Facebook advertising out there, is funded by this £10 million.
“The decent thing to do in the circumstances is to hand this money back. If he doesn't have this money back. It really does show you the depths to which the Tory party has sunk and I think it would expose Rishi Sunak once again for being the weak leader that he is.”
He added: “It shouldn't be Tory Party money. If they've condemned this man's comments, which they have, they said they’re racist and he was also - sexist and sort of violence references in there.
“He's also apparently today…used pejorative words about people of Indian heritage. If the Tory party genuinely thinks that these comments were wrong, and they condemn them, then they should put their money literally where their mouth is and hand the money back.”
