PM: Tory donor’s alleged Diane Abbott comments are “racist”
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, we look at the reaction to the alleged comments made by Tory donor Frank Hester as well as warnings from a watchdog that pet owners are overpaying for medicines. Adam and Chris discuss the reported remarks by Frank Hester, who has donated £10 million to the Conservative Party, after Rishi Sunak’s person described the donor’s comments as “racist”.
Mr Hester's company 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".
It said he had tried to apologise directly to her for the hurt he has caused, and is deeply sorry for his remarks.
Dale Vince, Labour Party donor and CEO of Ecotricity tells Adam what it’s like to be a donor of a political party. And the Competition and Markets Authority has warned that vet practices are not being transparent about the prices of pet medicines. Adam is joined by Claire Batty, a vet from Lancashire, and BBC reporter Jim Connolly. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Gemma Roper and Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Chris, it's 641 on Tuesday evening. |
| 0:07.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:08.1 | Shall we let newscasters into what happened between 632 and 635. |
| 0:13.3 | Why not? |
| 0:14.2 | So it started off with Chris trying unsuccessfully |
| 0:17.6 | to get the camera in his studio in the right place, |
| 0:19.9 | which sounded like this. |
| 0:21.1 | I mean, it looks exactly the same thing about it always does. Do you want me to just give it a give a... |
| 0:25.1 | You can. Oh crack yeah might have knacked it. What have I done? Is that... |
| 0:29.5 | Is my head even in that shot now. Oh, for crying out, lad. |
| 0:34.0 | And then we were getting all ready to talk about the latest on some alleged comments made by a conservative donor |
| 0:40.0 | about Diane Abbott when this happened. |
| 0:43.7 | But hang on a minute PM has just said this is racist. |
| 0:46.2 | Oh. Where's this come from? Hang on. |
| 0:48.7 | Bear with me. I'm just going to have to step out. |
| 0:51.2 | Okay, no raise, Okay, no worries. So Chris just explain just explain your reaction there. |
| 0:57.6 | So my reaction there is sort of born of the fact that all day up until now Downing Street had been saying that what |
| 1:08.0 | Frank Esther had reportedly said was unacceptable but had not attached the word racist to it and in the briefing |
| 1:16.9 | for Westminster reporters this afternoon with the Prime Minister's official spokesman |
| 1:20.1 | that question around sort of why not was asked roughly a million times and no |
| 1:26.7 | answer was given and then in the last couple of minutes I have been sent by |
... |
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