Election ‘cannot clash with Apprentice’
By politics.co.uk staff
The next series of the Apprentice may have to be rescheduled if there is a general election, the BBC Trust has concluded.
The Trust was addressing a complaint from shadow media secretary Jeremy Hunt.
He had argued that Lord Sugar’s new role as enterprise champion contradicted the corporation’s editorial guidelines.
Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: “Questions have been raised about the dual role played by Lord Sugar, as star of the BBC’s The Apprentice while also a Labour peer advising the government as enterprise champion.
“The trust’s editorial standards committee has judged that there has been no breach of the BBC editorial guidelines.”
But the corporation would have to be sensitive to concerns, Sir Michael continued, and not schedule an Apprentice series in the run-up to an election.
Lord Sugar was introduced to the House of Lords this week.
