Campaign catchup: Hester allegations, Labour tax plans, dodgy D-day branding

In today’s newsletter: Tory donor Frank Hester returns to the headlines – and Rachel Reeves is under pressure to raise capital gains tax

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Good afternoon. In March, the Guardian revealed that the Conservatives’ biggest donor, Frank Hester, had said to colleagues that looking at Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women”. The party responded by arguing that although his remarks were abhorrent, he had apologised. They stuck to their line this morning, when it was confirmed that they had accepted £5m more than was known at the time – and took £150,000 from Hester’s company after the comments came to light. But in the last hour, that position has come under severe strain.

Rowena Mason, Henry Dyer and Matthew Weaver have reported a series of other allegations about Hester from former employees, including claims that he imitated people of Chinese descent and referred to a staff member as the “token Muslim”. Hester has not responded to the claims – but the Conservatives say that they consider the matter resolved.

Labour | Members of the shadow cabinet are urging Rachel Reeves to raise capital gains tax if she becomes chancellor. Reeves is said to be considering a “kitchen sink” approach in order to justify raising tax income, by releasing all bad news about the public finances at once.

D-day | Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer attended commemorations in Normandy alongside the King and Queen and Emmanuel Macron. Sunak returned to the UK before an international ceremony also attended by Joe Biden.

Greens | The Green party has called for a wealth tax, and other radical tax reforms, to allow spending on health and social care to rise by more than £50bn a year by the end of the decade. Adrian Ramsay, the Green co-leader, said they were the only party being honest about the scale of the problem.

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