Dear Steve,
I hope you are well. I know that you take seriously the security of politicians. I wanted to thank you for talking to one of my colleagues on the Labour benches about the security of MPs and candidates recently.
As a General Election campaign approaches and political parties begin preparations, I am writing to you to seek assurances that your campaign and local Conservative Association will not use funds given to by the Conservative Party which have be donated by Frank Hester.
As you will know this week, Mr Hester’s abhorrent racist views became clear. He is reported to have said that he wanted to shoot an elected Member of Parliament. This falls well below the standard of behaviour that Wycombe residents expect and it is right that no party of government uses funds donated by this man.
The Guardian reported that Frank Hester said “[The executive] and Diane Abbott need to be shot”, and that “you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and […] you just want to hate all black women because she’s there, and I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.”
It was also reported that Frank Hester said of a female executive from a separate company that “it would be much better if she died. She’s consuming resource. She’s eating food that other people could eat.”
The Conservative Party has taken £10,000,000 in donations since February 2023 from Frank Hester or The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) where he is founder and sole shareholder.
While – in good faith – we assume that the Conservative Party was not aware of Mr. Hester’s views at the time of receiving these donations, it is only right that you and your party take seriously these new revelations.
Yet, the PM has refused to return the money.
This now means it is your responsibility to refuse support from your party if it is funded by Frank Hester’s money.
Accepting and using that money can only be treated as an condoning his deeply disturbing comments. Will you take responsibility and turn down this support? I will be publishing this letter in the public interest.
Kind regards
Emma