As if a year wasn’t long enough to wait for the next series of The Apprentice, the BBC may be forced to postpone their 2010 season due to impartiality worries.

Sir Alan Sugar has become Lord Alan Sugar after he was made a Labour peer and now takes his place as the government’s newly-appointed enterprise champion.

After Sugar’s new role was made public, the BBC were inundated with complaints that his government position could affect their political impartiality. While the BBC trust feel there has been no breach, they do admit that it may be unwise to air the next season close in the months leading up to a general election.

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.”

The trust added that, when scheduling next year’s series of the main Apprentice and The Junior Apprentice, the BBC “must give due consideration to the implications of showing the programmes in the months immediately before a general election”.

The elction has to take place by June 2010, so feasibly we could be waiting until July or August for our next Apprentice fix. How very devastating!

Sir Alan Sugar will be back for next years series of The Apprentice and his new role of Government adviser will “not compromise the BBC’s impartiality”, the BBC said.

Sir Alan said: “I am passionate about business and enterprise and that has always been my motivation for wanting to take on this role.

“I am glad that following detailed discussions, the BBC is satisfied that I will not be doing anything to affect its commitment to impartiality.”

In a statement the BBC said: “Following detailed discussions with Sir Alan Sugar, the BBC is satisfied that his new role as an Enterprise Champion to the Government will not compromise the BBC’s impartiality or his ability to present The Apprentice.

“Sir Alan is not going to be making policy for the Government nor does he have a duty to endorse Government policy.

“Moreover, Sir Alan has agreed that he will suspend all public facing activity relating to this unpaid post in the lead up to and during any shows that he is presenting on the BBC.”

The Conservatives have called for Sir Alan Sugar to quit his TV show ‘The Apprentice’, after he accepted a job from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

They say his new role as an “enterprise tsar” for the government is “completely incompatible” with BBC rules.

Culture Select Committee chairman and Conservative politician John Whittingdale told The Mail On Sunday: “In my view it is not possible for him to continue to present The Apprentice at the same time as he is so closely identified with the Government.

“I had assumed that by accepting the role as enterprise tsar he would stand down from his role in The Apprentice. His show is all about business and enterprise. He will be making recommendations on policy to Government.

“He is already a political figure – he has made no secret of his admiration for Gordon Brown. Either he is an influential figure in Government or this is just window-dressing.”

However, in an interview with The Andrew Marr Show Sugar defended his right to stay with the TV show saying:

“As far as I’m concerned, this is politically neutral. All I want to do is to try and help businesses and enterprise.”

“I have a passion and commitment to try and help small businesses and enterprise to see if we can get things moving again.”

He denied he had joined the government, saying: “I wouldn’t join the government, I don’t see this as a political thing.”

A BBC spokesperson added: “Sir Alan is in discussions with us about his plans and has assured us that he is determined not to do anything that would jeopardise his work at the BBC, which is something he values greatly.”

Sir Alan Sugar has banned the winner of this years Apprentice series from carrying out any tacky or nude photo shoots. Good news if Ben wins, but what if Philip snatches the title?

Sir Alan made the decision after learning that Ben Clarke was hoping to land some lucrative magazine deals and was working on his pectorals, hoping to be offered a topless photo deal.

A source close to the former Amstrad boss told The Sun: “Sir Alan is not happy about Ben’s plans.

“He thinks it puts a black mark against his name. Anyone working for him has to be dedicated to the job not, as he puts it, fannying around in the media. Sir Alan may search for an apprentice on a TV show but that doesn’t mean he endorses tacky celebrity behaviour.”

It looks like I’ll have to dig out the youtube clip of last night’s episode showing Philip in all his topless glory then. It proved to be a real pick-me-up.

Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar has insisted that he won’t be running for Mayor Of London, despite claiming that the role would be a walk in the park.

A poll for London’s Evening Standard and ITV London Tonight found that 40 per cent of voters would back Sir Alan if he stood as a candidate, however Sugar told London Tonight the appointment would not be practical.

“To be honest I have no idea what the duties of the London Mayor entails but in observing the past Mayor Livingstone and Boris the current one, I am confident that it would be a walk in the park for me,” he said.

“However, there is a major practical problem, which is a conflict of interest that would exist between my various businesses and that of the business of London.

“It would be cannon fodder to the media each and every time one of my companies sneezed, so regretfully – and at a great loss to Londoners and a mischievous media – my appointment is not practical, unless of course the media were to agree to behave themselves. No chance I guess.”

Sir Alan Sugar has managed to offend yet another group of people after he made some jibes about a candidates arthritis.

The Apprentice’s most recent reject, Rocky Andrews told Sir Alan that he started his own business after being forced out of a career in professional football due to an arthritic condition.

Speaking in the boardroom, Sugar announced: “Your career at Middlesbrough was halted. You got taken off the pitch in a stretcher. This time you’re off the pitch in a black cab. Rocky, you’re fired.”

Jane Tadman, from the Arthritis Research Campaign, has now blasted Sugar’s for his remakrs.

“We are always trying to move away from negative images of arthritis,” Tadman told the Daily Star Sunday. “I think a lot of people think arthritis only affects older people but it can affect anyone – even babies. Sir Alan’s comments are pretty negative and not welcome.”

A friend of Andrews added: “It’s not as if Rocky could have done anything about getting arthritis. It’s not his fault it didn’t work out.”

As a new series kicks off on BBC One tonight, Sir Alan Sugar has threatened to quit The Apprentice due to biased editing.

Sir Alan has lashed out at the “outrageous” BBC edit of a trailer for Comic Relief Does The Apprentice and said if similar editing continues he will quit the show completely.

Sugar said: “I am the villain all the time. The idiot that edited it – and I don’t know who’s done it – went through the past five years of archive to find snapshots of me roaring like a deranged lunatic and just stuck them all together.

“That person feels that is how they want me portrayed. I did my nut about it, but it was too late. It had been screened and I wasn’t shown it beforehand.”

He added: “If the production team and the BBC continue to do things like that without showing me, I will not do this programme any more, it is as simple as that.

“Someone played a dirty trick, let’s put it that way. But they won’t do it again – because it will be the last time.”

The new series of The Apprentice hasn’t even kicked off yet and already we hear that two of the candidates couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

The Mirror has reported that licensing development manager Kate Walsh and estate agent Philip Taylor embarked on a romance during their time recording the show and whilst they have since broken up their relationship is said to have continued after the show wrapped.

A show source said: “Kate was flirting with some of the boys from day one and Phillip made it clear he was interested. He made a move and the pair got together after that.

“After it was all over, they continued to see each other – though it didn’t last.

“But while they’re no longer an item, they’re still in touch and their relationship is sure to be in the spotlight once the series is under way.”

However The Sun reports that Sir Alan was furious when he found out about the affair.

A source close to the show told the paper: “It was pretty obvious Phillip and Kate had the hots for each other from the start.

“They’re both really good-looking and feisty — it was an instant attraction.

“Everyone else knew about it but when Sir Alan found out he went mad. He hates it when there’s any kind of ‘funny business’ going on, as he calls it.”

At the series’ launch earlier this week, Sir Alan said that he was “not sure” if there had been any romances this year. But he added knowingly: “I’m sure you lot will find out.”

Sir Alan Sugar has hit out at Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman after the Newsnight host reportedly said The Apprentice was full of “know-alls” with “nothing to say”.

Sir Alan told The Radio Times: “That’s the pot talking to the kettle, isn’t it? I mean, he’s the most unpleasant person going.

“I’d like to get into a debate, without him having a day to think up questions to make people seem awkward. I’d like to see how clever he is then.”

He added: “Jeremy Paxman has never interviewed me. I’ve never met him. But I’d like to be thrown in a room with him to debate something someone throws at us rather than him having a crib sheet hiding under the table.

“In my opinion that is cheating, honestly.”

Sir Alan Sugar has revealed that one of this years Apprentice candidates has already dropped out of the reality TV show.

Sir Alan breaks the news to the remaining fifteen hopefuls during their first boardroom meeting, telling them that a male candidate had already dropped out because of nerves.

“I personally don’t know who he is,” said Sugar at The Apprentice launch. “As I joke in the first episode, I’ve never met the bloke!

“From what I understand from the production team there’s nothing sinister about it. It was just that he got himself into the hotel room on the last night and he finally realised that this was it.”

He added: “He knew that he was going to be away from his family and kids for 12 weeks and the reality hit home. That’s what done him in. The thought of being away from the family.”

The Apprentice returns on Wednesday, March 25 on BBC One.