International
Organisations condemn the incitement to racial hatred by the largest Tory party
donor, Frank Hester, and the racist and Islamophobic comments by the former
Tory Vice Chairman and M.P., Lee Anderson.
PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
Press release embargoed:
Thursday, March 14th, 2024 @ 9.01 am GMT
An international alliance of civil society organisations, and human
rights activists have come together to condemn the actions of the Tory Donor,
Frank Hester in the deliberate racist abuse of Diane Abbott M.P. This latest scandal
comes in the wake of the equally racist and Islamophobic comments by Lee
Anderson, the former Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party, who has now
defected to the extremist Reform Party with comments directed at the Mayor of
London, Saddique Khan. The Conservative
Party is itself guilty of fostering and promoting the same extremism it now
seeks to condemn
The Governments definition of extremism that is exemplified by
that words of both Hester and Anderson is now,
“vocal or active opposition to
fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual
liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.
SBL will be reporting both individuals to the Metropolitan Police
and Mr Hester to Yorkshire Police to endorse the action by Ms Abbott.
Zita Holbourne of BARAC UK commented
“Two Members of
Parliament have been killed in recent years due to the corrosive effects of hate
speech on political life, with none in more danger than Diane Abbott M.P. who
has been threatened regularly on social media. The statements by Frank Hester
are an absolute disgrace, with the dreadful silence from Prime Minister, Rishi
Sunak and Government Ministers failure to condemn the racist abuse is a further
level of abuse. One could only imagine the clamour for a prosecution if this
had been a statement by a black member of Parliament against any white person
in power and authority.”
Judge D Peter Herbert O.B.E. (Retired), Chair of the Society of
Black Lawyers,
“The failure of the
Prime Minister to condemn the words of the largest Tory donor was unacceptable.
Either this is because he was sending out Ministers to minimise the seriousness
of what had occurred. or alternatively he was more concerned to protect the
perpetrator of this incitement to racial hatred to safeguard the £10 million
contribution made by Hester to the Tory party. His silence makes him complicit
to this appallingly dangerous abuse. If the word “Jewish women” had been
substituted for the word “black women”, imagine the international calls for the
Tory party to disown and prosecute Frank Hester. Sunak suggesting this can be
ignored is complete hypocrisy from a Prime Minister who has no appreciation of
the effects of racism on society.
Lee Jasper, former adviser to the Mayor of
London commented,
“The targeting of Islamists and Saddique Khan by Lee Anderson and
the venomous and racist attack on our longest serving Black Member of
Parliament, Diane Abbott all come from the same racist Tory play book. Even the
late recognition by Minister Kemi Badenoch sought to protect the Masters house
by suggesting that threats to kill could be ignored as she suggested, “there
needs to be space for forgiveness where there is contrition”. This must be the
type of forgiveness that requires her to put out the racist fire in the Masters
house where she and the Prime Minister underplay the seriousness of the threat
to the life of a sitting M.P. who is already the most targeted for abuse and
threats in Parliament. The Tory party has no moral qualms it seems from accepting
funds from a known racist who has still denies the blatant racism of what he
said.”
Mrs Yetunde Asika, Co-Chair of Bandung
Africa, commented,
“We will not stand idly by and allow this
blatant victimisation of Diane Abbott MP by the by Tory donor Frank Hester. She
has been a fighter for justice and equality in our community, showing huge
leadership qualities in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire, and many other community injustices
over the years. She has shown her commitment to racial justice both on the African
Continent and in the diaspora. It should come as no surprise that this far
right Tory donor links his abuse to her ethnicity, extends it to all black
women and then pretends he is not a racist. He is happy to call for our longest
serving black female member of Parliament to be shot and lie others assumes
some half-hearted apology would suffice. This is the sort of donor the Tory
party is happy to be funded by, not even Donald Trump is publicly funded directly
by the KKK.
Lee Anderson’s racist xenophobic comments that,
“I want my country
back…we are allowing people into our country that will never intergrate and
adopt out British values” and alleging that Saddique Khan and London was controlled by “Islamists” has been roundly condemned as deeply offensive, and
playing into some far right conspiracy playbook that echoes the way in which
Jews were targeted in the 1930’s by alleging some sort of state control based
on racial origin and religious faith. This racist politician conveniently
forgets the hundreds of thousands who came to fight for the U.K. in two world
wars, and gave their lives to up hold so called “British values”. In elevating “British
Values” to some form of higher moral status he omits any reference to the
exploitation, murder, torture, and oppression that constituted British actions
and deplorable “values” regularly applied in the former British colonies from
India to Kenya and the Caribbean.
We, the
undersigned condemn the incitement to racial hatred against black women
targeting a sitting Member of Parliament, and the gratuitous and extremist language
deployed by the former Tory MP, Lee Anderson, who failed to offer any apology
for his offensive and ridiculous assertion that London and its Mayor is
controlled by Islamist extremists. The racist targeting of MP Diane Abbott is
not capable of being met with any form of apology and we, the undersigned call
upon the MPS and Yorkshire Police to take action in this case.
Rtd Judge D
Peter Herbert O.B.E. , Chair SBL and Bandung Africa
Mrs Yetunde Asika, Co-Chair Bandung Africa
Co-Chair Bandung Africa
Bell Ribeiro-Addy,
U.K. Member of Parliament
Claudia
Webbe, U.K. Member of Parliament
Lee Jasper,
Former Adviser on Policing to the Mayor of London,
Zita
Holbourne, BARAC U.K.
Viv
Ahmun, Director Blaksox,
Professor
P.L.O. Lumumba, Kenya
Donald
Deya, CEO of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU)
Tim Okuwa,
CEO, The Black Equity Organisation (U.K.)
For further information please contact:
ya@bandungafrica.com
Judge D Peter Herbert O.B.E. (Retired) +254 (0) 742
101 877
Viv
Ahmun +44 (0)7985 395 166
Lee
Jasper +44 (0)7984181797
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