Calls for BBC to sack Lord Sugar after '˜racist' tweet

A tweet by Lord Sugar about the Senegal World Cup team has sparked calls for his sacking from the BBC show The Apprentice after he was accused of racist stereotyping.

Lord Sugar. Picture: BBC

The millionaire businessman has deleted the Twitter post, in which he compared the Senegal team to beach vendors, but has since been unrepentant and called it ‘funny’.

The Apprentice boss tweeted a picture of the sports team, which had been edited to include a picture of handbags and sunglasses laid out on sheets.

Lord Sugar wrote: “I recognise some of these guys from the beach in Marbella. Multi tasking resourceful chaps.”

After responding to a few people who had criticised his post, Lord Sugar removed it.

He tweeted: “Just been reading the reaction to my funny tweet about the guy on the beach in Marbella. Seems it has been interpreted in the wrong way as offensive by a few people . Frankly I cant see that I think it’s funny. But I will pull it down if you insist.”

He previously tweeted, to a follower who asked when he would apologise: “I cant see what I have to apologise for ... you are OTT ... its a bloody joke.”

In another post in response to someone who had said it was “not an OK tweet”, Lord Sugar wrote: “why not it is meant to be funny ... for god sake.”

His post came the morning after Senegal beat Poland 2-1 to in their first game of the World Cup in Russia.

BBC journalist Babita Sharma posted: “A shocking, vile tweet that you take a screen grab of because you know it will soon be deleted.”

Another Twitter user wrote: “This is neither banter nor a joke. It’s pure racism and @Lord_Sugar should be ashamed of himself. Don’t forget folks that as a member of the House of Lords, this man is a legislator!”