46 ATTEMPTS TO SPEAK! 1ST BLACK BRITISH WOMAN MP IGNORED

The United Kingdom has been abuzz this week after the Guardian published racially disparaging remarks that the Conservative Party's biggest donor, Frank Hester, a white man, has admitted to making regarding the first Black woman member of parliament, Diane Abbott. During a 2019 meeting at Hester's software company, he said Abbott made him 'want to hate all Black women.'

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer called Hester's comments 'racist and misogynist' during a 13 March exchange on the parliament's floor in which he demanded the Tories return Hester's recent donations totalling $12.7 million USD. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Hester's 'remorse should be accepted.'

During the 35-minute parliamentary session, Starmer and Sunak debated for four minutes. However, according to a Sky News count, Abbott was not allowed to express herself despite trying to get the speaker's attention 46 times.

Abbott later criticised Starmer for trying to score political points because he had suspended the 70-year-old MP last year for alleged 'anti-semitism.'

Amnesty International's review of tweets in the run-up to the 2017 UK elections found that 20 Black and Asian women MPs were 41 per cent more likely to receive abusive tweets even though white women in the study outnumbered them by a factor of eight. Abbott the most abusive tweets, with 45 per cent directed at her in the six weeks prior to the election.

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