Lord Sugar blasted by Remain camp for ‘racist’ attack on Brexit-backing German MP
Reality TV star said 'immigrant' should not be 'telling us British what we should do'
THE Remain campaign was hit by extraordinary infighting last night as Lord Alan Sugar was accused of racism for saying a leading Brexiteer should not “tell us British what we should do” because she is from Germany.
The millionaire businessman was attacking Bavarian-born MP Gisela Stuart, who moved to the UK in 1974, as she took to the stage in last night’s major TV debate for the Leave campaign.
Referring to Mrs Stuart by her maiden name, Lord Sugar tweeted:
He added: “She immigrated to UK from Germany in 1974. 30 mins ago was advocating that we stop immigration from the EU.”
Twitter users blasted the TV reality star for his “racist” comment, with former Tory MP Louise Mensch calling him a “pig”.
He was swiftly slammed by his own side, with James McGrory, spokesman for the official Britain Stronger In Europe campaign, saying his remarks were “utterly unacceptable”.
Tory MP and Leave backer Nadhim Zahawi said:
You must withdraw and apologise to Gisela. That is disgraceful. She is as British as you are.
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi)
Ms Stuart, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, moved to the UK at the age of 19. She is now a British citizen.
Denying his comment was racist, he hit back at one Twitter user: “You ignorant fool. How can my comment be classified as racist.
“Crawl back under your rock.”
Mrs Stuart is one of the most high profile Labour voices on the official Vote Leave campaign and appeared alongside former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and energy minister Andrea Leadsom in an BBC debate in front of 6,000 people at Wembley Arena.