Sugar unhappy over 'Apprentice' delay

Alan Sugar has reportedly complained about the decision to postpone his forthcoming Junior Apprentice series.

Lord Sugar's reality spinoff has been pushed back until the summer along with the regular Apprentice show following a ruling by the BBC Trust to protect the corporation's political impartiality.

The business tycoon is quoted by The Mirror as saying: "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."

Sugar was appointed to the House Of Lords as an enterprise tsar in July. He has described his new role as "politically neutral".

Junior Apprentice is a five-part series which will see Sugar setting business tasks for 16 and 17-year-olds. His comments about the programme reportedly came as he addressed 800 school and college pupils in London as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.