The racism in British politics rears its ugly head again as The Guardian reveals a top Tory Donor is alleged to have said looking at Diane Abbott makes “you want to hate all Black women”. According to the publication these disgusting remarks were made by Hester Frank, now the Tory party’s largest ever donor (over £10 million in the last year), who runs a business that has benefitted from over £400 million in government health and social welfare contracts in less than ten years. He continued his vile comment by saying that he doesn’t hate all black women but he thinks “[Abbott] should be shot”. This is British politics.

Beyond the sheer violence of his statements, this serves as another, unwarranted example of how comfortable people in and around politics are spewing gendered anti-Black abuse. There’s a special kind of vitriol reserved for Black women that can be triggered by our mere existence. The recklessness and ease with which the political elite – from ministers, business owners to the especially obsessed media outlets – find opportunity to show themselves to be bigots proves there is political value in targeting Black women. Diane Abbott most aggressively. Abbott has been the punching bag for political hooliganism for years, and though a human being above all else, she is accepted as fair game for the powerful to unleash their primitive poison. Nothing new, as sad as it is.