Alan Sugar's latest political role should remind Labour that the road to riches starts by going door-to-door
David Cameron will have been pleased to make use of this former Labour supporter
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Your support makes all the difference.Lord Alan Sugar has long since passed his apprenticeship as a Government business adviser. Though newly appointed as the Prime Minister’s “enterprise tsar”, a quick glance at his CV reminds us that he also, of course, served in a similar role under Mr Cameron’s Labour predecessor, Gordon Brown.
Unlike some of the wannabes who appear on his television show, Alan Sugar has been given a bit of a second chance. Not that Lord Sugar was exactly looking for a job. Although no longer involved in the firm that bore his initials, Amstrad, he is busy enough with new interests and said to be worth more than £1bn. He hardly needs to circulate his CV. Alongside Sir Richard Branson, he is the most celebrated entrepreneur in the land (Sir Philip Green might also be noted, were it not for some recent unfortunate controversies).
Politically, though, he may have been at a bit of a loose end. “Suralan”, as his TV contestants used to address him in the boardroom, left the Labour Party last year, citing Ed Miliband’s unsympathetic policies on business as the main gripe, and has in recent weeks made no secret about his disappointment with the anti-Semitism row that has engulfed Labour.
David Cameron will have been pleased to make use of this former Labour supporter. But Lord Sugar may simply want to make himself useful to the country, and do more than hire one young person on £100,000 a year to instil a spirit of enterprise in the coming generation.
Too many, perhaps, believe that the road to riches lies in show business or the media. There is some irony that many of Lord Sugar's most promising Apprentice proteges, such as Katie Hopkins, Michelle Dewberry and Saira Khan, wound up as celebrities. Lord Sugar himself proves that it more probably starts selling car aerials door-to-door, taking intelligent risks and working hard.
Maybe the Labour Party needs reminding of that too.
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