Lord Alan Sugar has blasted the Conservative party for putting pressure on the BBC to delay his show. Sugar’s Apprentice reality TV show usually airs in March, however due to his new role as ‘Business Tsar’ and possible conflicts with the 2010 general election, the BBC have pushed it back to June next year.

Lord Sugar told The Mirror: “They’ve delayed it for some political reason which is a bit of a joke in my opinion.

“Somebody from the Tory party complained to the BBC about me being an adviser to the Government and the result is that the television programme can’t be transmitted until the General Election is over.

“It is very frustrating because the programme itself has got nothing in it that is political at all, but unfortunately the BBC are frightened of the Tory party.

“They’ve been bullied by the Tory party and they can’t stand up to common sense.”

Fan of BBC’s reality TV show The Apprentice, will be disappointed to hear that the show has been moved from its normal March slot to June of 2010.

The scheduling change took place because of Alan Sugar’s role as Gordon Brown’s enterprise tsar. The BBC can’t take the risk of the show colliding with a British general election due to rules of impartiality.

An Apprentice insider told The Sun: “We’re disappointed. March is a good time for us because it’s the main reality show then. Bosses are worried fewer people will tune in over summer.”

Alan Carr has claimed that Sir Alan Sugar was “horrible” and “vile” when he took part in BBC’s Comic Relief Does The Apprentice.

The Channel 4 funnyman told new! magazine: “Just how scary is he? He’s horrible. I thought because we were celebrities he’d tone it down, but he was vile and laid into me.

“I used to take the mickey out of the contestants when they cried on The Apprentice, but he had me in tears. I was gulping and had a lump in my throat!”

Carr was also disappointed in the mighty Margaret Mountford when she failed to defend him in the boardroom.

He revealed: “I thought Margaret might support me. I thought: ‘She’s a woman, she’s a bit of a fag hag – she’ll help me’. But she just rolled her eyes.”

Dragon’s Den star, Duncan Bannatyne has revealed that he thinks Sir Alan had a huge lapse of judgement when he hired Lee over Claire in this years Apprentice show.

Duncan thinks Sir Alan should have fired Lee as soon as he found out that he lied on his CV and is less than shocked that he missed his first day at the office due to illness.

Bannatyne told The Mirror: “That’s what happens when you employ a liar. I’m so angry that Alan Sugar sent that message out to the country. If you want a job, kids, lie on your CV. I’m disgusted.”

Bannatyne added: “Claire should have won. She’s absolutely fantastic.” And plus she’s a lady.”

Apprentice boss, Sir Alan Sugar has hit out at claims that he sits on a booster seat in the boardroom to make him appear more imposing.

Sugar told the Press Association: “That’s a load of rubbish. The chair is fixed to stop it moving backwards and forwards while allowing me to swing to the left and the right.”.

“Anyone who watches the programme will know that I stand next to Nick and Margaret and the candidates, and I’m seen getting out of the car thousands of times,” he said. “It’s a total joke. It’s there to secure the four wheels to stop it moving backwards and forwards.”

Sir Alan Sugar signs up Jonathan Ross for Comic Relief Apprentice on tonight’s Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, on BBC One.

Alan tells Jonathan: “You’re going to join us…I’ll be nice to you.”

And he reveals what he thinks about some of this year’s intake for BBC Two’s series The Apprentice. “Simon’s a nice bloke but I got it right. He’s good physically, that’s his station in life…Rafe’s a very nice fellow, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Alan admits that he enjoyed firing Jenny. “Yes, that one had to go,” he says.

Fellow guest, newly slimline Johnny Vegas, gets more than he bargained for when Alan agrees to recruit him: “If he’ll come, I’ll sign him up now,” says Alan.

Jade Jagger tells Jonathan what it’s like having famous parents and a strict dad: “It can be a right pain in the a**e, everyone thinks you’re stupid.” She adds: “He [Mick] was a tough dad, he’s got a huge work ethic .. he kept me in line.”

This week’s line-up is completed with music from Vampire Weekend.

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, Friday 9 May 2008, 10.35pm, BBC One

Get set for an Apprentice shocker tonight, as Sir Alan Sugar sacks two of the candidates amidst a cheating scandal.

The teams are set a task in Morocco but two of the team are sacked as Sir Alan discovers that they attempted to bribe a market trader.

A show insider tells the Sunday Mirror, “When Sir Alan learns what they’ve been up to he completely blows his top.

“He has never, ever, been as angry as this. The team with the two cheaters tries to bribe and cheat its way to success and that’s just not acceptable.

“The contestants are nasty and bitchy about each other every week but this is on a whole new level.

“Viewers’ jaws will be hitting the floor as the girls almost come to blows.”

Sir Alan Sugar has revealed that he would love to change his catchphrase on BBC show, The Apprentice to “you’re sacked”, or “clear off!”

Sir Alan told The Sun: “I’m contractually obliged to say ‘you’re fired’. Personally I would have liked the flexibility to be able to vary it – maybe to say ‘you’re sacked’ or ‘get out’. Or possibly even ‘clear off’.

“But they tell me ‘you’re fired’ is great TV.”

Sir Alan Sugar, star of the British Apprentice show, has hit out at the BBC for portraying him as nasty and bad tempered.

“Like it or not, and I don’t like it that much, there’s a perception of me just banging the table and shouting,” the businessman told the Radio Times.

He revealed he is embroiled in a “continual argument” with the production team about how he is perceived.

“The BBC has categorised me as Mr Nasty, so all the humour ends up on the cutting room floor,” he said.

No-nonsense self-made millionaire Sir Alan Sugar is set to test the business skills of ten top celebrity candidates from the world of media, sport, politics and comedy in a special Sport Relief Does The Apprentice that will be broadcast on Wednesday 12 and Friday 14 March on BBC One as part of the Sport Relief Weekend.

Viewers will have a chance to see the famous faces work their socks off over two gruelling days to raise as much cash as possible for Sport Relief, under the watchful eyes of Sir Alan’s trusty aides, Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford.

The celebrities are divided into two teams, the Girls and the Boys. Each team is given an empty identical adjoining West End store.

Their task is to come up with a name, and then to stock their shop with fabulous items that they think will make them the highest profit.

They then have to take to the shop floor where they have to convince the rich and famous to buy up their stock for the most money possible.

The Girls team of Clare Balding, Lisa Snowdon, Jacqueline Gold, Kirstie Allsopp and Louise Redknapp take on the Boys team of Phil Tufnell, Lembit Opik MP, Kelvin MacKenzie, Hardeep Singh Kohli and Nick Hancock.

If they fail, their celebrity status won’t save them from the wrath of Sir Alan, but either way a star-studded fight to the finish is guaranteed as they battle not to be the one to hear those fateful words: “You’re fired”.