(): Police in northern England said Friday that they are investigating whether the largest donor to Britain’s Conservative government committed a crime when he reportedly said a Black member of Parliament made him “want to hate all Black women” and that she “should be shot.”

Frank Hester, the chief executive of healthcare software firm The Phoenix Partnership, allegedly made the remarks in 2019 about Diane Abbott, the first Black woman to serve in the House of Commons.

West Yorkshire Police said officers were “working to establish the facts and to ultimately ascertain whether a crime has been committed.”

Hester has apologized for making “rude” remarks about Abbott but says he’s not racist.

The Tory party has resisted pressure from opposition politicians to return the 10 million pounds (USD 12.6 million) Hester has given to the party.

The comments reported March 11 by The Guardian swiftly embroiled the Conservatives in a controversy as they sought to criticize the remarks but refused for nearly 24 hours to label them as racist. The party, which has been in power for 14 years, faces an election later this year and polling shows them trailing far behind Labour.

 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initially criticized Hester’s comments as “unacceptable,” but his spokesperson didn’t label the remarks racist until Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, who is Black, broke ranks and accused Hester of racism. “The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist,” Sunak later told lawmakers. But he said Hester had “rightly apologized for them, and that remorse should be accepted.”Hester’s company has been paid more than 400 million pounds (USD 504 million) by the National Health Service and other government bodies since 2016, according to The Guardian.

Hester allegedly made the comments during a company meeting in Leeds.