Dave said he hated Alan Sugar – now he’s hired him as Tory business tsar
HE once said there was as much chance of George Osborne offering him a job as ‘a rabbi eating a bacon sandwich’.
But yesterday Apprentice star and former Labour adviser Lord Alan Sugar was hired as the Government’s new enterprise tsar.
Previous clashes with senior Conservatives did not stop the peer taking up the role for a second time, having first served under Gordon Brown.
But if David Cameron thought hiring Lord Sugar would temper his criticism, he may be disappointed.
Lord Sugar told BBC Newsnight yesterday: ‘I said to the Prime Minister the other day you have a whole host of people giving you a load of statistics which you are rattling off.
‘If it was me, I would say give me the detail so I can tell ordinary people that I’m not just going to say things like jobs will go, I will want to explain why jobs are going to go. That’s got to happen in the next two weeks.’
Lord Sugar, who supports staying in the EU, also attacked Brexit champion Boris Johnson. He said he has ‘gone off the rails’, adding: ‘I had a lot of respect for him until a couple of weeks ago with some of the outlandish things he has been saying.’
Lord Sugar took up the enterprise role under Labour in 2009, but quit the party after the 2015 election following its drift to the Left under Ed Miliband. He has previously rebuffed Tory advances and accused the Prime Minister of being part of an ‘elite’ and of breaking promises.
He first clashed with Mr Cameron in 2008 after the latter reportedly said of the tycoon and his hit BBC show: ‘I hate both of them. I can’t bear Alan Sugar.’
Lord Sugar fired back: ‘I am still waiting for him to answer my question: If he was in power would things be any different? He seems to know when to stay silent.’
Just before the general election, the peer said: ‘Hollow promises and false claims from Cameron. He wants to bring back The Good Life. He can’t. Richard Briers and Paul Eddington are both dead.’
Lord Sugar, who worked his way up from selling TV aerials to building an empire worth more than £1billion, has also criticised Jeremy Hunt, whom he called a ‘rubbish’ Health Secretary, adding: ‘He’s an embarrassment, Cameron needs to chuck him out.’
In October 2011, he accused Mr Cameron of causing the markets to tumble. Yet despite the repeated criticism, he told an interviewer in 2009 he would continue his enterprise role ‘under any government’.
However, he said he thought there was as much chance of Mr Osborne phoning as ‘a rabbi eating a bacon sandwich’, adding: ‘They wouldn’t out of sheer belligerence, even if I was the best bloke in the country’.
Yesterday Lord Sugar was more upbeat, saying of his new role: ‘I’m delighted to be taking on this challenge. I built successful businesses with the support of hundreds of talented young people who learned their skills on the job – exactly the kinds of skills you learn in an apprenticeship.
‘But not enough of our young people know about apprenticeships and what they offer, and too few feel empowered to set up their own business.’
He will now travel the country to speak to school leavers about ‘the opportunities for starting their own business, hopefully instilling some entrepreneurial spirit’.
Mr Osborne backed his appoint called ment, telling MPs: ‘I can confirm we have hired Lord Sugar to advise on enterprise and he will bring his knowledge and expertise to that. Apparently, Lord Sugar has told the Labour Party “You’re fired”.’
Liam Byrne, former Labour chief secretary to the Treasury, whose history of Britain’s entrepreneurs, Dragons, is published this week, said: ‘Lord Sugar has got his work cut out.
‘New figures show in the last three years over a million people have left the enterprise economy.’
Lord Sugar has been scathing of his old party under Jeremy Corbyn, suggesting all Britons ‘leave this place to rot’ and move to China if Mr Corbyn becomes prime minister.
He has also been critical of both sides of the EU referendum debate, saying they are guilty of exaggerating and making unfounded claims which frighten people.
Lord Sugar also condemned his American Apprentice counterpart Donald Trump’s move into politics, saying of the US presidential hopeful: ‘If I was an American I would be very, very worried.’
‘I can’t bear Alan Sugar’