We mentioned not long ago that postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake earlier told BBC Breakfast his party would accept further donations from Frank Hester.

Hollinrake told BBC Breakfast he agreed that comments Hester allegedly made about MP Diane Abbott were racist, but added: "I don't think he's a racist person.

"He said something a bit stupid, completely inappropriate. We all say stupid things at times – I don’t think people generally say things as stupid as that – but he’s apologised, and I think we should move on from that."

Asked if the Tory party would accept another £10m from Hester, he replied: "On the basis that we don’t believe Mr Hester is a racist, yes."

In his later interview with the Today programme, Hollinrake gave a slightly different response to this question, saying it was a "decision for others to decide".

Public shift in Tory position makes it harder to defend Hester donationspublished at 09:49 Greenwich Mean Time 13 March

09:49 GMT 13 March

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

There are two questions about Frank Hester’s case today.

The first question is about whether the Conservatives will hand back the money - £10m to be precise. In any walk of life that’s an extraordinary sum, and Hester gave it to the Conservative Party just last year.

With an election war chest being built, you can see why - in narrow financial terms, at least - the Conservatives are so keen to keep Hester’s donations. Indeed, Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, said this morning that he would welcome further donations from Hester.

For now, the calls for the Conservatives to hand back the money are almost entirely coming from outside the party. If other Conservatives join Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, in suggesting the donations should be returned, then the position may came under more strain.

The second question is about Rishi Sunak’s judgement. Yesterday morning’s position that Hester’s alleged comments were wrong but not necessarily racist always felt fragile. It became untenable as soon as Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said that the remarks as reported were racist.

Arguably the very public shift in the Conservatives’ position has made it harder for them to defend what for them is most important - their wish to keep Hester’s donations.

Image source, UK Parliament

As we mentioned earlier, postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake said this morning that the Conservatives have no plans to return the money donated by Frank Hester.

Speaking to the Today programme, Hollinrake was asked about Andy Street saying he would have returned the money.

"Andy is entitled to his own opinion of course... that's Andy's opinion," Hollinrake said.

"The judgment here, in my view, should be - did Mr Hester apologise for what he said? The comments are clearly wrong. He apologised for them. I think that's how we should judge Mr Hester's character."

Asked whether he the party should accept any more donations from Hester, Holinrake said it was a decision for someone else.

“I don’t look after the donations in this party and that will be a decision for others to decide whether Mr Hester is the right person based on what’s happened in recent days,” he says.

Earlier, during an interview with BBC Breakfast, Hollinrake had said the party would accept another £10m from Hester.

Image source, Reuters

More now from that interview with Andy Street this morning.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands says he would have returned donations from Frank Hester, who is alleged to have said MP Diane Abbott made him want to "hate all black women".

Opposition parties have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to return the £10m donated to the party by Hester.

"I would think about the company I kept and I would give that money back," Street says.

“I have to give you my view, rather than what the party should do, but I've thought about how I would handle that situation."

Alex Therrien
Live reporter

Good morning and welcome.

The row over alleged comments from top Tory donor Frank Hester reportedly saying Britain's longest-serving black MP Diane Abbott made him want to "hate all black women" continues this morning.

This morning, the Conservatives’ West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said he would return the money donated by Hester, who has given £10m to the party, if it were his decision.

But Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake, appearing on the media round on behalf of the government, said his party had no plans to return the money, adding that while Hester’s comments were “clearly wrong” he had apologised.

It comes after Downing Street last night called the comments "racist and wrong", after initially calling them "unacceptable" without specifying why.

Rishi Sunak is likely to be pressed on the issue later when he faces Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates and political analysis.