Communities secretary asked about Tory donor’s views says ‘an individual comment’ would not be enough to warrant scrutiny under new extremism rules
Michael Gove has suggested a Tory donor’s alleged call for an MP to be “shot” would not be referred to the government’s new extremism taskforce, reports the PA.
Businessman Frank Hester is alleged to have said that Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”, in comments the prime minister described as “racist” after initially refusing to do so.
We have to be clear, we’re looking at organisations with a particular ideology. The individual concerned said something that was horrific. I wouldn’t want to conflate those motivated by extremist ideology with an individual comment, however horrific, which has quite rightly been called out and which has quite rightly led to an apology.”
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