You’re hired: Lord Sugar backs Boris Johnson to be next PM
Lord Sugar has thrown his weight behind Boris Johnson to be the next Prime Minister, saying he can “stop Jeremy Corbyn from being PM”.
Johnson is already guaranteed in a place in the run off between the final two candidates after he secured 114 votes in the first round.
Read more: Boris Johnson says ‘long way to go’ after first round victory
Six candidates – Johnson, foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, home secretary Sajid Javid, international development Rory Stewart, environment secretary Michael Gove and former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab – after health secretary Matt Hancock pulled out.
Sugar, who has been a vocal critic of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, tweeted:
Sugar has previously called for Johnson and Gove to be “prosecuted” for the “lies” they told during the second referendum, in which the two men campaigned for Leave.
At a debate in the House of Lords last year, Sugar said there was a “good argument to void that [the Leave] vote if it can be concluded that the public were totally misled”.
“It is my belief that a large section of the British public were misled, informing their decision to vote to leave.”
Read more: Tory leadership hopeful Rory Stewart: I can beat Boris and I will stick up for Canada
He said in the business world “comments and forecasts … had to be scrutinised line by line by auditors and lawyers in a very tough due diligence and verification process” and that the same standards should be applied to politicians.