Frank Hester: The major Tory donor embroiled in racism row

Major Tory donor Frank Hester has been under fire since comments that he allegedly made about Diane Abbott emerged.

He is accused of saying in 2019 that Britain’s longest-serving black MP made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

Mr Hester has not denied making the remarks, but claimed they had “nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

Who is the businessman embroiled in the racism row?

– What is Mr Hester’s background?

The 58-year-old grew up in Armley in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire. His parents, from Ireland, started a plastering business. It was his mother’s payroll work that inspired him to start writing software to speed up the process.

Statement regarding recent media reports:

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,…

— Frank Hester OBE (@HesterObe) March 11, 2024

Mr Hester trained as a priest before studying computer science at university and working as a software engineer in the financial sector.

– How did Mr Hester make his fortune?

He founded The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) in 1997 in an effort “to improve efficiency and standards in the UK healthcare system” and “remove the administrative burden” from his GP wife, according to its website.

The Yorkshire-based health tech company’s core product SystmOne allows digital medical records to be shared and is today used in more than 2,600 GP practices and a third of acute mental health trusts, as well as in China, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

TPP is worth £1 billion after winning more than £400 million of NHS and prison contracts in the last eight years, according to the Guardian, which broke the story about Mr Hester’s comments about Ms Abbott.

It was the subject of controversy in 2018 when an error by the company, used by the NHS, led to confidential health data of 150,000 patients being shared.

During the pandemic, TPP was reported to have won a six-figure Government contract to supply data on vaccine uptake levels at GP practices in England.

The service has proved to be very profitable, with TPP recording an £80 million turnover and profit before tax of £40 million in the year to March 2023, according to Companies House documents.

Mr Hester, its sole director, netted a salary of £510,000.

He appeared at number 321 on the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, with the newspaper estimating his wealth at £415 million.

Mr Hester wrote on LinkedIn that TPP takes “care of all of our staff” with “bacon sandwiches for breakfast and a free bar early evening at the local pub” on Fridays.

In 2015, the businessman was made a member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to healthcare.

– What about his donations to the Conservative Party?

Mr Hester donated £10 million to the Tories last year, according to Electoral Commission records.

He individually donated £5 million to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party in May and gave another £5 million via TPP in November.

Mr Sunak also accepted a personal gift of nearly £16,000 for a helicopter ride last December.

In an interview with the Telegraph last month, Mr Hester said he spent much of his adult life voting for the Green Party or spoiling his ballot before turning to the Tories.

The entrepreneur has been invited on several government trade missions in the past, including visiting India with then-prime minister David Cameron in 2013.

He told the Telegraph the he became more supportive of the Tories on the trade trip, but that it was Mr Sunak’s engagement with artificial intelligence that convinced him to hand over cash.

“I’ve had some quite long conversations with Rishi about AI,” he told the paper.

The donations came as the Conservative Party continues to languish in the polls ahead of a general election expected later this year.

Mr Hester has posted on LinkedIn about meeting Boris Johnson at the 2020 Commonwealth heads of government meeting and attending Mr Sunak’s AI discussion with tech billionaire Elon Musk last year.

– What happed in the past week?

Before this week, Mr Hester kept a fairly low public profile for a leader of such a major company.

But on Monday he was cast into the spotlight by a report about racist comments he allegedly made in 2019.

The Guardian reported that, during a meeting at his Leeds company headquarters, he discussed Ms Abbott after criticising an executive at another organisation.

He reportedly said: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like … 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.”

The fallout intensified on Tuesday night when the newspaper reported that he referred to “no room for the Indians” during a crowded meeting, and suggested they “climb on the roof, like on the roof of the train there”.

– What was his response?

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

In a statement released through his firm, Mr Hester said he had tried to call Ms Abbott on Monday to “apologise directly for the hurt he has caused her”.

“He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison which has no place in public life.”

Responding to the Guardian’s second story on X, formerly Twitter, he did not deny making the comments, but pointed out he also said “I abhor racism”.

– What was the wider reaction to the revelations?

Mr Hester’s alleged comments were widely condemned, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats branding them racist and calling for the Tories to return his donations.

After ministers and Downing Street refused to describe Mr Hester’s comments as racist for most of Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman finally labelled them as such in the evening.

There is no sign Mr Sunak’s party is moving to hand back the cash Mr Hester has donated.

Ms Abbott herself said the reported comments were “frightening” and “alarming” given that two MPs – Jo Cox and Sir David Amess – have been murdered in recent years. Police are understood to have been contacted.