Sir Alan not quite hired
Updated on 01 July 2009
Channel 4 News learns that the appointment of Sir Alan Sugar to the House of Lords has run into trouble with the body that vets potential peers. Cathy Newman reports.
Not so much fired as struggling to get hired. Sir Alan Sugar has been able to make or break entrepreneurs with a jab of the finger. Now it's the businessman himself whose hope of promotion hangs in the balance.
Sir Alan was awarded a peerage when he became an enterprise tsar in the government reshuffle last month. But a member of the House of Lords appointments commission told Channel 4 News that the honour should be delayed until a sex discrimination case against the businessman is resolved.
A Liberal Democrat peer has written to the Appointments Commission calling for Sir Alan's peerage to be put on hold.
The Apprentice star has already faced criticism that his twin roles as government adviser and BBC presenter are incompatible. But the Appointments Commission is most concerned about the allegations of sex discrimination and bullying, from Hanna Sebright who was a top executive at a company taken over by Sir Alan last year.
She is taking him to an employment tribunal, but the case will not be heard until the autumn. In a statement tonight Sir Alan's spokesman said the businessman would "vigorously defend" himself at the tribunal.
He added: "Sir Alan is surprised that it was thought appropriate to join him personally to these proceedings in circumstances where he has only met the individual concerned on one occasion for no more than 10 minutes."
The House of Lords Appointments Commission vets potential peers to see if they are fit and proper to sit in the chamber. Its guidelines say that would-be Lords have to be credible and in good standing in the community.
Peerages for four Labour supporters were blocked during the cash for honours row, but former speaker Michael Martin has just got his gong despite reservations from members of the Lords appointments commission.
