Labour calls for parliamentary probe into ‘racially offensive’ Lord Sugar World Cup tweet
2 min read
Labour has called on parliament’s authorities to formally probe a “racially offensive” tweet sent by Lord Sugar.
The Apprentice star sparked outrage this morning when he posted a picture of the Senegal national football team with a caption saying that he recognised them “from the beach in Marbella”.
A shot of the team lining up before a game was posted with pictures of sunglasses and handbags for sale on a beach under them.
The former Labour peer, who quit the party in 2015 and now sits as an independent crossbencher, subsequently deleted the message and was forced to apologise after initially defending its content.
But a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said the message was “quite clearly racially offensive and unacceptable and should be investigated by the relevant authorities.”
Shadow Equalities minister Dawn Butler also hit out at the billionaire businessman, saying she was “very troubled” at the “racist” tweet and would be calling on both the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards and the BBC to take action.
Former shadow minister Clive Lewis went on to compare Lord Sugar to his former counterpart as Apprentice host in the US, President Donald Trump.
Following the backlash, Lord Sugar tweeted to apologise, insisting he had not intended to cause offence.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Lord Sugar has acknowledged this was a seriously misjudged tweet, and he’s in no doubt about our view on this. It’s right he’s apologised unreservedly.”
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