Tycoon Sir Alan Sugar (left), famous for his 'You're Fired' putdowns on TV show 'The Apprentice", has been hired by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in an enterprise role. --PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON - TYCOON Sir Alan Sugar, famous for his 'You're Fired' putdowns on TV show 'The Apprentice", has been hired by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in an enterprise role, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.
The blunt-talking millionaire will take on an advisory role and specialise in small and medium-sized companies.His celebrity status and business acumen could help the government to sell its message to a sceptical public.
The 62-year-old's appointment came on a day when Mr Brown carried out a government reshuffle to shore up his authority over a Labour party riven by high-profile resignations. It is a surprise move into politics for the son of an east London tailor. Sir Sugar ridiculed a media report earlier this year that suggested he was Labour's favoured candidate for the Mayor of London.
His Amstrad company - the name taken from his initials - was launched in 1968 and helped to pioneer the sale of budget computers in Britain. He sold the company to BSkyB in 2007. He was also chairman of Tottenham Hotspur football club in the 1990s.
Sir Sugar is a long-standing friend of Mr Brown and already sits on the Business Council for Britain, which advises on issues affecting enterprise and the economy.
Sir Sugar has challenged candidates in the latest series of 'The Apprentice', based on the US TV show of the same name featuring entrepreneur Donald Trump, to survive and flourish in the recession, saying it will determine who he appoints for a 100,000 pound (S$233, 154) a year job.
Ahead of his appointment, Sir Sugar gave support to the embattled prime minister who faces a rout in local and European elections and a potential rebellion among party members.
'We are in a kind of emergency situation as far as the economic conditions go, and you couldn't have a better person in place as far as I'm concerned,' he told BBC television, referring to Mr Brown's decade as Chancellor.
Media reports said he would receive a peerage which would allow him to sit in the House of Lords. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson told the BBC: 'Lord Sugar ... You will see him pioneering enterprise and backing small and medium-sized enterprises around the country. That is what we need.'
Sir Sugar left school at 16 and sold car aerials out of a van, before going on to create a business empire which made him one of the country's top 100 wealthiest men, with an estimated fortune in 2008 of 830 million pounds. -- REUTERS
