Why won’t the Tory party do the right thing and hand back ‘dirty’ money?

The prime minister promised ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’, writes Sean O’Grady. Frank Hester’s racist remarks show the Conservatives know the price of such ethical ambitions – it’s about £10m

Frank Hester, who made a fortune from public sector contracts, became the Conservative Party’s biggest donor (TPP/Youtube)

When Rishi Sunak became prime minister, he declared that he stood for “integrity, professionalism and accountability”. That was how he intended to run his government and – it is reasonable to presume – his party as well. In those salad days, he was regarded as all of those things – and bright and competent with it. Maybe not so much now.

Still, he has now (belatedly) said the right thing about Frank Hester’s reported remarks about Diane Abbott – and condemned them as racist. But the question arises: will he do the right thing and hand the £10m that Hester gave the party back to this generous but flawed donor? It’s really what you’d colloquially call “dirty money” – no corruption is hereby meant or implied – because of its involvement with this extremely ugly row.

Imagine, for a moment, if it were some local businessperson in Sunak’s constituency who made the winning bid of £1,000 for a bottle of House of Commons scotch, signed by the PM, at the Richmond Conservative Association fundraising dinner. Then it emerged in the press that the businessperson had made some blatantly racist remarks about a female Black Labour councillor a few years back. Outrage. Ways would be found to return the £1,000, though the guy could probably keep the whisky, if only to help console himself.