Surf is up. Hello and welcome to todays verified live. Downing street has described as unacceptable remarks alleged to have been made by one of the Conservative Partys biggest donors about the mp diane abbott. The guardian reports that during a Business Meeting in 2019, frank hester said diane abbott made him want to hate all black women and that she should be shot. Mr hester has admitted making comments about her which he described as rude. Mr hester has issued a statement saying that at the meeting in question, he said he abhorred racism. Diane abbott has also released a statement responding to his alleged comments. She said. Government ministers have faced questions from the media and they called his comments unacceptable but stopped short of calling them racist. Well, its clear that what he said was inappropriate. He has, as i understand it, apologised for those remarks. I think the Critical Point here is i dont think what he was saying was a gender based or a race based comment, b