WATCH: Lord Sugar says Michael Gove and Boris Johnson should be jailed over NHS Brexit pledge
2 min read
Lord Sugar has called for leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Michael Gove to be sent to prison over a controversial claim that voting to leave the EU would boost NHS spending.
The crossbench peer and host of TV's 'The Apprentice' told the House of Lords today that business chiefs who had told a similar “lie” would face “prosecution” for their claims under company law.
Mr Johnson and Mr Gove were among the high-profile Brexit supporters at the 2016 referendum who backed a Vote Leave campaign slogan which said: “We send the EU £350m a week. Let’s fund our NHS instead.”
But the claim was criticised in some quarters for failing to take account of Britain’s £75m a week rebate from the EU.
Theresa May has since promised £384m-a-week extra for the NHS - but ministers have admitted that tax rises could be needed to fund much of the boost after the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies rubbished the idea of a “Brexit dividend”.
Speaking in the upper chamber today, Lord Sugar recounted his own experience as a business leader, saying board members were obliged to make sure forecasts were “scrutinised line-by-line by auditors and lawyers in a very tough due diligence and verification process”.
But he warned: “No such process exists for claims politicians make in convincing the public who, by the way, rely upon them and trust them, to place their vote.”
The outspoken telecoms tycoon added: “In some cases, misleading shareholders has resulted in prosecution, imprisonment.
“Applying a public company principle it should follow that those people who will be responsible for putting this country into five to ten years of post-Brexit turmoil based on lies should be imprisoned or at least prosecuted - such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove for the £350m lie that they put on the red bus.”
The attack on leading Brexiteers marks the latest eyebrow-raising political intervention from Lord Sugar.
In October he vowed to leave the UK if Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister, while he came under fire over the summer after tweeting a picture of the Senegal football team that was dubbed "racially offensive" by the Labour leader's spokesperson.
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