It has been such an atrocious six days for Rishi Sunak that his most lowering point was not Lee Anderson, the gargoyle the prime minister appointed as deputy Tory chair, giving him the finger by declaring that he was jumping ship to the Faragiste Reform party. The destabilisation of the Tory leader by that nasty defector has been trumped by Mr Sunak’s abysmal absence of judgment over Frank Hester, his noxious donor.
This is far from the first time in British politics that a prime minister has been engulfed in trouble because of his links with a moneybags. The test of leadership is how it is dealt with. Faced with Mr Hester’s disgusting remarks about one of our most prominent black politicians, the Tory leader utterly failed the test by initially refusing to denounce the donor’s comments as racist and setting his face against relinquishing the cash he has poured into the Conservative treasure chest.
