Leading Leeds businessman Frank Hester donates £5m to the Conservative Party - this is why

Frank Hester OBE, founder and chief executive of healthcare technology company The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), has given the seven-figure sum to Rishi Sunak’s party in a boost to the Prime Minister’s spending power ahead of the next general election.

Sky News, which first reported Mr Hester’s gift, said the sum is likely to be disclosed by the Electoral Commission when it publishes its latest quarterly data on political donations.

Mr Hester, who grew up in Armley and whose company is based in Leeds, founded TPP in 1997 after witnessing mistakes with care for his father.

In a column for the Daily Telegraph, he explained his father, who had a lung disease, had suffered a serious heart attack after previously making clear he didn't want to be resuscitated in a medical emergency.

He said: “There was a terrible mix-up at the hospital and the doctors, who didn’t have access to that key information in his medical record, brought him back.

"He then spent four days in a coma on a life support machine until my mother and I made the difficult decision to let him go. While I don’t blame anyone for this mistake, it left a mark deep inside me to try and improve the way healthcare is delivered in this country.”

Mr Hester said he had made the donation as he believes Rishi Sunak’s shares his passion for using technology to improving health outcomes.

He said: “Historically, I have never been particularly interested in politics – I used to vote Green until I realised they wanted to close the M1!

"However, in Rishi Sunak I see someone who shares my passion for using technology to enable front line workers to spend more time treating patients and ultimately revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered in Britain. I believe he understands and values the NHS and wants to tackle some of its most pressing challenges.”

Mr Hester added: “As a businessman from Yorkshire I have been fortunate enough to have met the Prime Minister.

"He shares my passion for harnessing the data revolution to transform the way we as citizens access healthcare. Artificial Intelligence has the ability to collect, store and analyse patient data in a way that could revolutionise diagnostics, identifying for example whether someone is more at risk from cancer or dementia.

"Robotics can help minimise invasive procedures, meaning less trauma for patients and speeding up recovery times.

“I am convinced that the Prime Minister can deliver for the NHS.”

It comes after commission records show that TPP donated £11,300 to the Tories in February and also £145,000 in March.

The company told The Mirror this month that the donations should have been made in Mr Hester’s name and that he had since repaid the money back to his firm.

A spokesperson for TPP said: “The donation is a personal matter for Mr Hester and as such TPP is not commenting. The company has and will always be apolitical.”

TPP describes the firm as providing “leading software that is transforming healthcare worldwide”.

In 2015, the businessman was made a member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to healthcare.

Mr Hester has been invited on several government trade missions in the past, including visiting India with then-prime minister David Cameron in 2013.

Speaking at last year's Yorkshire Post Data and Digital Conference, which was sponsored by TPP, Mr Hester said of his international business meetings: “I’m not from Silicon Valley, I didn’t go to Harrow or Eton. The idea of going around the world and trying to change the world can be a bit daunting sometimes. I often end up feeling out of place meeting ministers and royal families around the world.”

He appeared at number 321 on the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, with the newspaper estimating his wealth at £415 million.

The Rich List said Mr Hester spotted an opportunity to build IT software for the NHS “when his GP wife grumbled about her computers at work”.

TTP has been contacted for comment.

Mr Hester’s donation will be welcomed by the Conservative Party, which said it would not be commenting, with an election likely to be called next year.

In 2022, the Tories, according to the Electoral Commission’s annual accounts, recorded a loss of £2.3 million in what the party described as a “turbulent year”.

Income from donations fell by £2.4 million compared with 2021, with party officials saying this was partly due to “donor pledges moving into 2023”.

But financial support in 2023 looks to be considerably up, with the party recording more than £12 million in donations in the first three months of the year.

That figure far outstripped rival parties, with Labour raising £4.4 million and the Liberal Democrats £1.3 million.

The total for the Tories in the first quarter of the year was boosted by a £5 million donation from Mohamed Mansour, the party’s senior treasurer and a former minister in the government of Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak.