Lord Sugar: Politicians who mislead public should go to jail

Agnes Chambre

Alan Sugar has called for politicians who break election manifesto promises to be jailed.



The former Labour peer urged the Government to implement a company style audit for manifestos so politicians can be held to account.

Lord Sugar told the Sunday Times: “If you mislead people like that I think it should be a criminal offence.

“As the chairman of a public company, if I told lies in a shareholders’ statement that resulted in the crash of the share price or the increase in the share price which caused traders to go and buy lots of shares or not to buy lots of shares, I would be put in prison.”

“If they lie, which results in massive decisions like leaving the European Union, or gaining votes in a general election, then this should be a criminal offence as it would be in a public company if I lied to my shareholders.”

The businessman’s call comes just days after he publicly said Jeremy Corbyn should resign because of his alleged pledge to scrap student debt.

The Labour leader told the NME during the election that he would "deal with" the issue of student debt if he won last month's election.

However the party has since claimed wiping it out is an "ambition" for the party and it was never a policy pledge.

Lord Sugar said: “Corbyn is a poor leader and the Labour party is in hopeless disarray.

“The recent election results were misleading because of the lies told to get people to vote for him and they are in a complete and utter mess.”

The television host also attacked Boris Johnson for the Leave campaign’s claim Brexit would mean £350m a week for the NHS.

“There must have been a lot of people who believed that,” the peer said. “It’s not so bad in a general election because you have got five years to sort it out and the lies and promises will blow back in people’s faces but Brexit is permanent.”