Rishi Sunak has been accused of putting “money before morals” after he refused to hand back a £10m donation to the Tories from Frank Hester.
Hester was revealed by the Guardian to have said veteran MP Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and “should be shot”.
The prime minister has accepted the comments were “racist” but has not heeded demands to return the multi-million pound donation.
Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “The Conservative Party has accepted a ten million pound donation from an individual who said one our of our parliamentary colleagues in this chamber should be shot.
“Why is the prime minister of the United Kingdom putting money before morals?”
Sunak said while Hester’s comments were “wrong”, he had “apologised for them” and that should be accepted.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, also demanded Sunak hand back the donation.
“How low would he have to sink, what racist woman hating threat of violence would have have to make, before the prime minister plucked up the courage to hand back the £10m he has taken from him?”
Referring to the speech on extremism given by Sunak in Downing Street two weeks ago, Starmer added: “He chose to anoint himself as the great healer and pose as some kind of unifier.
“When the man bankrolling his election says the member for Hackney North should be shot.
“He suddenly finds himself tongue-tied, shrinking in sophistry, hoping he can deflect for long enough will all go away.”
Abbott, who was in the chamber for PMQs, has said Hester’s remarks were “frightening” given two MPs have been murdered in recent years.