Frank Hester ‘should not be allowed to carry out NHS contracts’, says the union representing GPs
Unions representing GPs and health professionals have called on Conservative donor Frank Hester to walk away from NHS contracts. He claims his “racist and misogynistic comments” breach the ‘fit and proper person’ test.
Hester’s company TPP manages the electronic health records of almost half of Britain’s medical practices, but his comments about Diane Abbott have prompted him to step aside amid a growing political row.
The development comes as Downing Street refused to say how many times the Prime Minister has met the Conservative donor since donating £10m.
The pair are said to have met in the afternoon on the day after the Autumn Declaration in November, when Hester paid around £16,000 in travel costs for Sunak to fly to Leeds by helicopter for a political visit. Downing Street declined to “go into the details” of whether they had met.
The Guardian can also reveal that the pair were photographed together at a party fundraiser last June.
It is understood the healthcare entrepreneur has attended at least two party events in London: the Conservatives’ main summer party last June in central London, where they were photographed, and another just two weeks ago.
Hester, who has been working on artificial intelligence as part of his IT activities, has previously said he has had “some pretty long conversations with Rishi about AI”.
He also tweeted about witnessing a “brilliant AI discussion between Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk” last November.
Anneliese Dodds, Labor leader, said Sunak needed to be clear about their relationship.
She said: “Rishi Sunak has shown he is simply too weak to pay back his millions and cut ties completely. Rishi Sunak must come clean about the relationship he has with Frank Hester, including how many times he has met him since becoming Prime Minister.”
The NHS ‘fit and proper person’ test applies to the leadership of trusts, but accompanying notes suggest other bodies “may also wish to follow this guidance as a matter of good practice”.
One of the minimum expectations is to avoid discrimination, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
The Guardian revealed on Monday that Hester said at a meeting in 2019 that seeing Abbott on TV “makes you want to hate all black women” and that the long-serving MP “should be shot.” He has apologized for the comments but denied they were motivated by race or gender.
On Thursday, the British Medical Association’s GP Committee (GPC), which represents all UK GPs, voted in favor of an emergency motion noting that Hester’s comments were “contrary to the NHS England ‘fit and proper person testing framework’ introduced in response to the Kark Review 2019 recommendations”.
The motion called on “UK health boards to vigilantly apply their own processes when contracting external stakeholders whose views and values may not align with the wider NHS professional workforce”.
They added that he should resign from his company with immediate effect.
After the meeting, Dr. Alan Stout and Dr. Andrew Buist, co-chairs of the GPC: “This emergency motion makes it clear how shocked general practitioners are. There is no room for racism or sexism within the NHS, and the committee believes he should resign from his position with immediate effect.”
TPP did not respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Steve Taylor, a spokesman for the GP committee of the Doctors’ Association UK, also supported the GPC motion.
He said: “The British GP committee of the Doctors’ Association has serious concerns about recent comments allegedly made by Frank Hester, owner of TPP, one of the leading suppliers of GP IT systems. The GP workforce is a diverse community of people and these comments are deeply disturbing. We agree with other GP organizations that this calls into question TPP’s leadership.”
TPP has received more than £400 million in contracts from the NHS and other government agencies since 2016.
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Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, which represents half a million NHS workers, echoed the doctors’ organization’s views.
She said: “The offensive comments made against Diane Abbott were appalling. People rightly expect that companies that provide public services are not run by individuals with racist views.”
Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB, whose members include nurses and ambulance drivers, said there should be a pause on awarding further contracts to Hester’s company.
Hester has given £10 million to the Conservatives, making him the party’s biggest donor. He reportedly donated a further £5 million earlier this year. Sunak is under increasing pressure to return the money following the disclosure of Hester’s comments.
Harrison said: “The Hester affair is just another example of a rotten Conservative government letting the country down at every turn.
“The public should expect the highest standards from public sector suppliers, and it is time to stop the flow of money from government procurement directly into the Tory Party’s coffers. There should be a moratorium on new NHS contracts while he negotiates a new £5m donation to the Conservatives – it’s a clear conflict of interest.”
When the £5 million donation was announced this month, Hester rejected the idea that he was giving money to secure more government contracts, saying many of these came from hospitals and GPs. “GPs decide which software to use, not Rishi Sunak,” he said.
A petition calling for Hester to be stripped of the OBE he was awarded in 2015 for services to healthcare has attracted 88,000 signatures.
Among those supporting the demand is Dorothy Price, professor of art history at the University of Bristol, where she was co-founder and inaugural director of the Center for Black Humanities.
Price tweeted: “Frank Hester has made nasty comments about Diane Abbott. He doesn’t deserve to be honored but has an OBE. Agree? Sign the petition demanding his OBE be taken away from him now!”
Meanwhile, the leaders of ten prominent anti-racism groups have given their opinions have written to Sunak who expressed his concerns about Hester’s comments and called on the Prime Minister to be “unequivocally committed to the fight against racism”
They said that “an increasingly normalized culture of racism that has been allowed to fester under the current government” meant Hester “felt emboldened to express vile sentiments”.
The letter – signed by David Weaver, the chairman of Operation Black Vote; Shabna Begum, the CEO of the Runnymede Trust; Timi Okuwa, of the Black Equity Organization; Jeremy Crook, of Action for Racial Equality; and Zara Mohammed, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, urged Sunak to take “immediate and tangible steps to address this situation”.
They said: “We invite you to take this opportunity to champion the cause of anti-racism and lead by example, demonstrating the UK Government’s unequivocal commitment to combating racism and promoting a society where equality, respect and inclusivity come first. ”