Tory chair refuses to say whether party took further £5m from Frank Hester

Holden said he could not comment on whether the Tories had recently accepted £5m, after it emerged that Hester told colleagues in 2019 that looking at Diane Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and said she “should be shot”.

Asked on the BBC’s Politics Live whether a further £5m had been donated, Holden repeatedly refused to say but added that he was “comfortable about accepting money when people have been clear about their views”.

After the interview, Anneliese Dodds, the chair of the Labour party, wrote to Holden asking him to give the public the transparency they deserved over whether the Tories had received a further £5m from Hester.

“Your refusal to be clear about this can mean only one of two things: either as Conservative chairman you are unaware of what’s going on in your own party; or you are content to continue accepting money from Mr Hester but don’t have the courage to say so.

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After the publication of the remarks, a statement from Hester’s company, The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), said he “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.