Frank Hester: Race row donor called staff who are ‘a funny colour’ to racism meeting

Frank Hester summoned employees who were “a funny colour” to an emergency meeting to address accusations of racism, former staff have claimed.

The Yorkshire-based businessman, who has donated more than £15m to the Conservative party in less than a year, is alleged to have demanded that ethnic minority staff “drop what they were working on” and join him for “a chat” after a negative review appeared on the jobs website Glassdoor.

According to one former employee of The Phoenix Partnership, the health software firm founded by Hester: “He was just walking around these large, open-plan, floors shouting ‘anyone who is a bit of a funny colour come upstairs and we will have a chat’.”

Hester subsequently summoned the rest of the team, who were told that the non-white members of staff “agree I am not a racist, so everybody else should agree too”.

Other former employees have alleged that he said women going on maternity leave were “bleeding me dry”.

He is also accused of having told a female coder not to bother “keeping up with the boys” because “boys are better at technical things and girls are better at girl things”.

The incidents are historical and pre-date recent allegations, revealed by the Guardian, that Hester told colleagues the long standing Labour MP Diane Abbott “makes you want to hate all black women” and should be “shot”.

The Guardian also reported that Hester referred to “Asian corner”, something which Tortoise sources also corroborated.

Several former staffers told Tortoise that Hester’s behaviour frequently crossed a line. One saying: “Certainly the reports in the Guardian are, if anything, understated.”

Hester has not responded to requests for comment, but has previously issued a statement saying: “Hatred of others based on race, religion, gender, sexuality or geography is odious and disgusting and… racism – in particular – is a poison that has no place in public life.”