Top Tory peer piles pressure on Rishi Sunak to hand back Hester £10m and call election now

Rishi Sunak resisted mounting calls on Wednesday to hand back £10million to Tory party donor Frank Hester amid a racism row, as a prominent Tory peer piled pressure on the Prime Minister to call an election now.

Mr Sunak and Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer clashed at Prime Minister’s Questions over the Tories taking the large sum from the wealthy donor, who Downing St condemned for “racist and wrong” comments he allegedly made against MP Diane Abbott.

Mr Hester is alleged to have said Ms Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving black MP, made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

Mr Sunak suggested in the Commons on Wednesday that he did not intend to return the money because Mr Hester’s “remorse should be accepted”.

But former Tory chairman Lord Patten later told Times Radio: “If he has made remarks which are racist, how can you in a reasonable way take 10 million smackers of his money?

“The sooner this