Sir Alan gets his peerage but will the apprentices get loans?
Alan Sugar made the right decision in choosing Yasmina Siadatan as his new apprentice on his TV show, but is it the right decision to make him the government’s enterprise champion?
Sugar has earned his spurs as an entrepreneur; starting Amstrad aged 21 and spotting the market for a series of consumer electrical goods. At one point it was a FTSE 100 company and he was in the top-15 of the Rich List. He has an idiosyncratic style of management, leadership and governance that allowed him to exploit opportunities that others could not see or act on.
But that is not the same as getting banks to lend to other entrepreneurs. Lenders may be blind to business people’s talents but they will not jump simply because Sugar bangs his fist or uses a well-honed term of abuse. His skills were not appreciated by the City when he was a public company and his view of the City was equally low.
Gordon Brown has successfully associated himself with success in appointing Sugar but the effectiveness of the move may be short-lived. What will the businessman do when he finds Labour policy conflicts with his own deeply held beliefs?
Sugar is too independent to be politically committed though he has dallied with politics before. He fronted the Tories’ awareness campaign for the European single market when they were in power in 1988 and he appeared on a platform with John Major in 1992 when the Conservative prime minister was fighting the 1992 general election.
When Labour was in opposition Sugar wrote to newspapers complaining about its tax plans but when shadow chancellor Gordon Brown answered, Sugar declared “I don’t know who Gordon Brown is. Excuse my ignorance, but I don’t”.
Well Sugar knows now who Brown is and has accepted a peerage to add to the knighthood bestowed by Labour in 2000. As the businessman is being made an adviser not a minister the peerage was not necessary – unlike those handed out to Paul Myners, Andrew Adonis, Mervyn Davies Shriti Vadera, Digby Jones, Peter Mandelson and the other unelected ministers brought into government.
Sugar said he did not understand whether he must vote Labour in the House of Lords but he will be expected to take the party whip. That is a potential area of conflict but even if he lasts no longer than Digby Jones did as trade minister, Sugar will keep the peerage for life.
It is unlikely Sugar will remain entrepreneurship champion after the next election because it is unlikely Labour will be in government. It is highly likely however that the next series of The Apprentice will be climaxing just as Britain goes to the polls.
Brown gets his celebrity therefore, Sugar gets his peerage and the BBC gets a hot potato. But will small business gets its loan?
