Minister slammed for claiming Tory donor should get 'second chance' despite 'racist' rant against Diane Abbott

Housing minister Lee Rowley was also criticised for saying the Tories would not hand back the Hester millions
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A minister was hit with a furious backlash after claiming Tory donor Frank Hester should be given a “second chance” despite his “racist” rant against Diane Abbott.

Housing minister Lee Rowley was criticised by fellow panelists on the BBC’s Question Time and members of the audience after taking this stance and saying that the Conservatives would not pay back millions given to them by Mr Hester.

Rishi Sunak finally branded the alleged outburst as “racist” on Wednesday evening after Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch had earlier broken rank to condemn it as such.

Ministers have said the party is not planning to repay £10 million of donations from Mr Hester and would be prepared to take more cash from him, with reports that a further £5 million has been given, which if true would be confirmed when official figures are published in coming months.

Pressed on the row, Mr Rowley, appearing on Question Time partly to discuss the Government’s new definition of extremism, said: “The comments were wrong, the comments were racist.

“The first thing they (person who made the remarks) need to do is say that that was wrong.”

Arguing that there is a wider issue of how to respond when people make deeply offensive comments, he added: “Do we say second chances work?

“My personal view, I’ve tried to do this all the way through my career in politics as an MP, is to try to give second chances, not just on my side.”

But journalist Ayesha Hazarika, who has been made a Labour peer, rounded on the minister, stressing: “That is not just ‘I have been a bit rude’ and when you say he apologised he did not even recognise his abhorrent, disgusting, frightening racism.

“He said he had just been a bit rude.

“If you are going to be preaching to the country about extremism, you have got to put your money literally where your mouth is...

“This guy is bankrolling the Conservative Party, will you give that money back?”

Mr Rowley responded: “I’m not in charge but I don’t think we are giving the money back, no.”

Ms Hazarika hit back: “So basically, £15 million gives you a blank cheque for racism?”

The minister said: “No...that is absolutely not correct.”

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told him: “Do you not see what this audience has said tonight: ‘You have lost the legitimacy to tackle a really serious issue which is extremism because these people and the people at home they will not listen when you operate that double standard as a Government’.”

One audience member told Mr Rowley that “it’s not your place” to say Mr Hester deserves a second chance and suggested such a view should only be on the table if Ms Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, believed the issue had been “genuinely addressed”.

Another asked “how far is too far” for people to be given a second chance, and a third pressed Mr Rowley on whether the Tories would now take more Hester donations.

He admitted early in the programme that the “Conservative Party has had a difficult week” which has ended with Rishi Sunak ruling out a May 2 election amid uncertainty over this timing adding to a febrile atmosphere at Westminster, partly due to his handling of the racism storm.

Mr Hester has admitted making “rude” comments about Ms Abbott, but claimed they had “nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

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