Hackney MP Diane Abbott has said comments made by a Conservative donor that she made him want to ‘hate all black women’ and she needs ‘to be shot’ were ‘frightening.’

Frank Hester – who made the comments – runs the healthcare technology firm the Phoenix Partnership, and has donated £10m to the Tories in the past year.  

His comments about Diane Abbott, which were revealed by the Guardian, are said to have been made at a meeting in 2019. Talking about an executive from a different organisation, Hester said: “She’s shit. She’s the shittest person. Honestly I try not to be sexist but when I meet somebody like [the executive], I just … 

“It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV and you’re just like, I hate, 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. 

“[The executive] and Diane Abbott need to be shot.” 

In a statement made to Good Morning Britain this morning, Abbott said: “It’s frightening. I live in Hackney and do not drive so I find myself, at weekends, popping on a bus or even walking places more than most MPs. 

“I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talking like this is worrying. For all of my career as an MP I have thought it important, not to live in a bubble, but to mix and mingle with ordinary people. The fact that two MPs have been murdered in recent years makes talk like this all the more alarming. 

“I am currently not a member of the parliamentary Labour Party but remain a member of the Labour Party itself, so I am hoping for public support from Keir Starmer.” 

Abbott, who has been the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, was the first black woman to be elected to the UK parliament and is the country’s longest-serving black MP. Between 2016 and 2020 she was Shadow Home Secretary in Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.  

Formerly a Labour MP, Abbott has sat as independent since April last year, when she was suspended after making comments suggesting that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”. She is waiting for the decision of an independent complaints process on whether she will be reinstated. 

Keir Starmer told ITV’s Lorraine this morning: “The comments about Diane Abbott are just abhorrent. 

“And Diane has been a trailblazer, she has paved the way for others, she’s probably faced more abuse than any other politician over the years on a sustained basis. 

And I’m sorry, this apology this morning that is pretending that what was said wasn’t racist or anything to do with the fact she’s a woman, I don’t buy that I’m afraid, and I think that it’s time the Tory Party called it out and returned the money.” 

After the Guardian published the comments on Monday, the Phoenix Partnership released a statement that said: “Frank Hester accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbot in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin. 

“The Guardian is right when it quotes Frank saying he abhors racism, not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s. 

“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.” 

The Press Association reported that members of the opposition have urged the Conservative Party to give back the donations they have received from Hester and his company.  

Anneliese Dodds, Labour Party chairwoman, said: “These comments are reprehensible. 

“Frank Hester is the Conservative Party’s biggest ever donor, as well as a personal donor to the Prime Minister, it is therefore vital that Rishi Sunak and the Tories return his donations, in full without delay. 

“Rishi Sunak has claimed that ‘words matter’, and he must know that holding on to that money would suggest the Conservatives condone these disturbing comments. Sunak must return every penny.” 

Hackney councillor Mete Coban said in a tweet: “This is absolutely disgusting and disgraceful. Such vile, racist remarks have no place in our society.” He then called on Rishi Sunak and the Tories to “call out this racism and return the money”.