Exclusive: Frank Hester’s TPP employed Conservative peer as trade envoy in 2016

The business owned by Tory donor Frank Hester, whose comments on Diane Abbott have been widely denounced as racist, paid a Conservative peer £148,000 to serve as a trade ambassador, according to information obtained by the Guardian, further demonstrating his close ties to the party.

In September 2016, Zahida Manzoor, who had previously served as the deputy chair of the Commission for Racial Equality in the 1990s and as a Lords whip in Theresa May’s administration, assumed the part-time position of chairing a Middle East advisory group for Hester’s health tech TPP.

Zahida Manzoor

Hester’s tenure in the £12,300-a-month position, which ended in September 2017, demonstrates that her connections to the Conservatives are deeper than previously believed.

In addition to confirming the involvement at the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), Lady Manzoor noted that it had been disclosed at the time in the register of members’ interests. She informed the Guardian that she had not encountered any prejudice while employed by TPP, joining the chorus of others who denounced Hester’s comments last week.

In two installments of £5 million in May and November of last year, Hester gave the party a total of £10 million. She is also rumored to have given a further £5 million, which has not yet been disclosed. The Guardian also disclosed that last November, Hester flew Rishi Sunak to Leeds for an exclusive tour of TPP’s offices.

Manzoor was unaffiliated with any party when she assumed the position following her resignation as the Liberal Democrat whip due to her views on Brexit. Three weeks after assuming the position with TPP, she declared her intention to join the Conservatives in October 2016.

In June 2017, Manzoor departed from TPP. “The agreement was mutually terminated as the company chose to concentrate on China instead of the Middle East,” the spokeswoman stated. This was solely a business choice.

She did not dispute the amounts at stake. “My compensation is determined by a contract that was signed by TPP and me,” the woman stated.

She said, “That type of language is totally inappropriate and unacceptable in any circumstance,” when asked about Hester’s comments regarding Abbott. Racism and prejudice in any form should never be accepted or encouraged. But in the little period I worked at TPP, I never heard remarks of this like, and neither Mr. Hester nor anybody else at TPP said anything to me or in my presence.

Since 2016, TPP has been awarded contracts worth over £400 million by the NHS and other governmental organisations. In the UK, it also oversees the software for over 60 million patient records.

Hester was advised to leave TPP last week by the BMA’s general practice committee, which stated that his comments “contravened NHS England’s fit and proper person test.”

Manzoor, a former regional chair of the NHS, responded, “GPs, NHS health boards, and NHS England are responsible for the procurement of IT and patient administration systems,” when asked if TPP should be awarded any further NHS contracts.

It goes without saying that the fit and proper test needs to be used when awarding contracts. I would recommend that this test be reassessed on a regular basis, especially when contracts are about to expire or new information becomes available.

“The Conservative Party should handle any donations that are made to it.”

We have reached out to TPP for a response.

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