Racist slurs against Diane Abbott are a stain on Sunak’s Conservatives – and Starmer’s Labour

Of all the players in the current political drama, the one we have really been waiting to hear from is the victim of the egregious abuse thrown in her direction by a super-rich Tory donor, Frank Hester. Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black female MP, now breaks her silence in The Independent, and she has spoken out with a quiet, cold anger about her treatment – in fact, by the leaderships of both main parties.

Suspended from Labour over allegations of antisemitism in a letter she wrote to a newspaper last year, for which she has apologised, she finds that Sir Keir Starmer was initially more interested in scoring points about political funding than in the “textbook” racism and sexism directed at her.

As she puts it: "The position of the current leadership of the Labour Party is disappointing… equally reluctant at the outset to call out either racism or sexism. Instead, the entire focus was on the demand that the Tories give Hester back his money, which is surely not the primary point in this case.”

Given all that has happened recently, and her remorse for past events, it is surely time for Sir Keir and his colleagues to restore the whip to Ms Abbott, and allow her to continue her parliamentary service on behalf of the people of Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Labour has surely had enough of purges by now.

Most of Ms Abbott's ire, however, is reserved for the Conservatives: "I am afraid long-term experience teaches me that the Tory party has long been a source of whipping up racism in this country, including directed at me personally.”

It has left the prime minister in a miserable position. Facing the Commons after more than a week of successive race rows, a lacklustre Budget, plus a defection to Reform UK, Rishi Sunak was never going to “win” the latest session of Prime Minister’s Questions. The benches behind him were subdued, as well they might be, while renewed rumours about a leadership challenge allowed Sir Keir to make an especially cruel wisecrack: “All we need now is an especially hardy lettuce, and it will be 2022 all over again.”

That there are even rumours about (yet another) vote of no confidence and a leadership election at this stage in the parliament is ample proof that the Tories are in no position to provide the nation with strong and stable leadership. The latest polling suggests the voters want a general election as soon as possible. They may well increasingly resent Mr Sunak sitting in Downing Street like Mr Micawber, waiting for “something to turn up”.

It certainly doesn’t feel like there is great enthusiasm across the land for this government stumbling on until near to Christmas. The longer Mr Sunak hangs on hoping for some unexpected boost from the economy, or perhaps to see some terrified refugees bundled onto a flight to Rwanda, the greater the punishment his party may receive from the voters for making them wait and wait and wait.

The longer he leaves it, the more Reform will pick up momentum, the bigger the Labour landslide, and the closer the Tories will edge to extinction. Strange to say, but Mr Sunak’s popularity may well have already peaked, and the only way is down. Rationally, he should cut his losses – and run.

Mr Hester’s disgraceful racist remarks about Ms Abbott hang around Mr Sunak like some dismal grey cloud. To many Conservative MPs watching the leader of the opposition looking more prime ministerial by the week, even the £10m that Mr Hester has donated to the party must feel like scant recompense for the shame it has heaped upon them.

Remarkably, it was left to Sir Keir to pay a generous tribute to Theresa May, former Conservative Party leader and prime minister, after her recent announcement that she was to stand down at the next election. Sir Keir made it look as though Mr Sunak and his team had either forgotten about her public service, or didn’t care. It was a further small but significant sign that the Downing Street machine isn’t keeping up with events.

If they could give the problematic money back, most Conservative members of parliament probably would; but it has apparently already been spent, and there is no practical prospect of it being refunded. The result is that the Conservative Party is unable to deal decisively with funding compromised by its association with racism, and the result is it looks increasingly disconnected from the multicultural life of the modern British nation. It is not a great place to be if you aspire to be the natural party of government.

His spin doctors explain that Mr Sunak hesitated about condemning Mr Hester’s (admittedly unverified) remarks because they wanted to give him a “right of reply”. This is an unsatisfactory response, because the reported remarks were not denied, and because the prime minister’s spokesperson could have issued a condemnation conditional on the racist and sexist language being accurately reported.

What was even less forgivable was Mr Sunak’s refusal to refund the £15,000 of helicopter rides paid for by Mr Hester; and Mr Sunak made a further unforced error by declaring to parliament that he was “pleased” that Mr Hester was backing “one of the most diverse governments in this country’s history”.

Unlike the £10m, it would be very easy for Mr Sunak, a man of ample means, to reimburse Mr Hester, and it might have helped restore some sense of what Mr Sunak once said would be the leitmotifs of his administration – “integrity, professionalism and accountability”.

Such is the state of the governing party as it approaches the general election – divided, plagued by racism, toying with another leadership crisis, and drifting to oblivion. It doesn’t feel like a sustainable course when even his own MPs don’t seem that keen on “sticking to the plan”, or even knowing what Mr Sunak’s plan actually is. The sense of decay is now palpable.