Kemi Badenoch has described comments made by Frank Hester as ‘trivia’ in a shocking about-turn today.
The business secretary broke ranks last week by branding comments reportedly made by a major Conservative Party donor about MP Diane Abbott as “racist”.
Hester is alleged to have said Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving black MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
Downing Street described the reported remarks as “unacceptable” but refused to say whether they were racist at first.
Badenoch seemingly forced their hand by issuing this statement:
But the business secretary seems to have backtracked on her previous stance, telling broadcasters that Hester’s comments are trivia while doing the media rounds this morning.
“It’s trivia, it really is”, Badenoch told Nick Ferrari on LBC.
“We need to get to a place where we stop chasing people around and looking everywhere for the racism.
“Everybody is accusing, and counter accusing around racism.”
She repeated similar messages on other channels, much to the surprise of broadcasters.
Watch the comments in full below:
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