Sunak resists calls to return Frank Hester’s cash despite saying Tory donor’s Diane Abbott comments were racist – UK politics live

Sunak resists calls to return Frank Hester’s cash despite saying Tory donor’s Diane Abbott comments were racist

Keir Starmer starts with a tribute to Tommy McAvoy, the former Labour whip who has died. And he praises Theresa May for serving the Commons “with a real sense of duty”.

Is the PM proud to be bankrolled by someone saying Diane Abbottt “makes you want to hate all black woman”.

Sunak says these comments were wrong and racist, and Frank Hester has expressed remorse.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

Is the prime minister proud to be bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynistic language when he says the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington [Diane Abbott] ‘makes you want to hate all black women?’

And Sunak replied:

The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist, he has rightly apologised for them and that remorse should be accepted.

There is no place for racism in Britain, and the government I lead is living proof of that.

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Updated at 08.55 EDT

Key events

Diane Abbott was trying to “catch the speaker’s eye” during PMQs. She was not on the list to ask a question, but the speaker, Sir Lindsay Houle, routinely takes questions from MPs who aren’t on the list, and a lot of commentators on X are criticising him for this.

These are from Adam Payne at PoliticsHome.

MPs look and sound confused by Lindsay Hoyle’s decision to not call Diane Abbott for a question

Abbott was visibly frustrated to not get a question. Starmer and Flynn went to speak to her after PMQs finished

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Updated at 09.15 EDT

When Lee Anderson defected to Reform UK on Monday, he said what persuaded him to join another party was George Galloway winning the Rochdale byelection. But now they are sitting alongside each other on the opposition benches.

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Mark Francois (Con) asks Sunak to assure him that he is not making the same mistake made by Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s, when defence spending was restricted until it was too late.

Sunak tells Francois he agrees with the point he is making.

The world that we’re living in is becoming both more challenging, strategically, and more dangerous. And in response to those challenges. We must invest more in our armed forces.

And that’s the end of PMQs.

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Rachael Maskell (Lab) asks about the situation in Gaza. The PM’s plan is not working. Will he change tack and push for a bilateral ceasefire?

Sunak says the government is incredibly concerned about the situation in Gaza. The UK is playing a leading role in providing aid, he says.

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Natalie Elphicke (Con) asks about hold-ups at Dover. Is funding available to keep the port clear?

Sunak says this is being discussed at the highest level of government, with French and EU counterparts.

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Sarah Olney (Lib Dem) asks if Sunak thinks Thames Water will still exist by the end of the year.

Sunak says it would not be right to comment on the financial situation of a company.

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Sir Edward Leigh (Con) asks if Sunak agrees the Tories are the only party that will block mass and illegal migration.

Sunak agrees. He says Labour says it would block the Rwanda policy even if it were working.

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Patrick Grady (SNP) says Tories call the European court of human rights foreign. But the UK has been part of it since it was set up, it has an Irish president, and a British judge on it. How is it foreign?

Sunak repeats his point about not letting a foreign court block flights to Rwanda.

ShareSunak says he won’t return £15,000 donation from Frank Hester covering cost of helicopter flight

Marsha de Cordova (Lab) says last year Sunak accept a £15,000 non-cash donation from Frank Hester for the use of a helicopter. Will he reimburse that?

No, says Sunak. He says Hester is supporting a party with a diverse cabinet and the first British Asian PM.

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Sir Christopher Chope (Con) asks Covid vaccine compensation.

Sunak says the government is looking at this issue.

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Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru at Westminster, says the new play Nye celebrates the big increase in life expectancy that followed the creation of the NHS. But life expectancy is now falling, she says.

Sunak says the NHS in Wales has the worst record of any country in the UK.

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Dame Andrea Jenkyns (Con) says, instead of paying migrants to go to Rwanda, the UK should leave the ECHR and “deport them for free”. Will the PM at least put this in the Tory manifesto?

Sunak says he will not let a foreign court block the UK’s ability to deport people to Rwanda.

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Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks a reorganisation of cancer care for children services affecting his constituents, and other people in south-west London, Surrey and Sussex.

Sunak says these are operational decisions for the NHS.

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Sunak says he hopes to pass the law exonerating post office operators before the summer recess. And compensation will be paid on the same basis to victims across the whole of the UK.

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Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, says the Tories have taken money from someone who says an MP should be shot.

Sunak says the gentleman has apologised.

Flynn says he apologised for being rude. He goes on:

He wasn’t rude. He was racist. He was odious, and he was downright bloody dangerous.

He suggests the extremism that the government should address is in the Conservative party.

Sunak says Flynn should wait and see what the extremism statement says.

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Starmer says this is like Liz Truss again. All we need is another lettuce, he says.

Sunak say pensions are going up by £900. The triple lock is going up. The government is investing in the NHS. And all Starmer has offered is a £28bn unfunded spending commitment, on energy.

So, under Labour, taxes are going up, he says.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

I did listen to the chancellor: £46 bn of unfunded commitments … They tried that under the last administration and everybody else is paying the price.

But two weeks ago the prime minister promised to crack down on those spreading hate, today he shrunk at the first challenge. Last week he promised fantasy tax cuts, now he is pretending it can all be paid for with no impact on pensions or the NHS.

All we need now is an especially hardy lettuce and it could be 2022 all over again. Is it any wonder that he is too scared to call an election when the public can see that the only way to protect their country, their pension, and their NHS from the madness of this Tory party is by voting Labour?

And Sunak replied:

All we have from him is a £28 billion unfunded promise. I had a look at it.

Producing a pamphlet from under his folder of notes and tapping it, Sunak added:

It is here, it is all here ‘making Britain a clean energy superpower’, he has still stuck to it and if you look through it carefully there is billions in spending he has already committed to Scotland, billions for Wales, there is actually money for North London too I noticed, but the problem is, none of it funded. So why doesn’t he come clean and tell them under his plans British people’s taxes are going up?

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Updated at 08.35 EDT

Starmer says Labour will not commit to Sunak’s £46bn unfunded tax cuts.

He says Sunak would have to cut NHS spending, or put up taxes to achieve his NICs policy.

Sunak says Starmer has admitted he is opposed to the Tories’ plan to cut national insurance.

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Starmer says Sunak is describing a Labour party that no longer exists.

He says Sunak won’t comment on the fact that someone who got huge NHS contracts is now the Tories’ biggest donor.

National insurance contributions fund pensions and the NHS. Will the promise to get rid of NICs be funded by pension cuts or NHS cuts?

Sunak says he is glad the budget has come up, because the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury has said Labour won’t stick to Tory spending plans. He says Labour’s plans mean higher taxes for Britons.

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Starmer says he has changed his party, while Sunak is scared of his.

He says Sunak invited himself into everyone’s living room to denounce extremism recently. But he was tongue-tied when Hester’s comments were reported. He suggests Hester’s donations were linked to the NHS contracts he received.

Sunak says he won’t take lectures from someone who backed Jeremy Corbyn, who he suggests backed extremists.

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