Alan Sugar has come under fire following an interview on This Morning in which he discussed the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting people working from home had become “complacent”.
The businessman and reality star spoke to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield during Tuesday’s show, in an interview which started as a discussion about his latest protegée, The Apprentice winner Carina Lepore, but quickly saw him sharing his views on people returning to offices.
“Today is about putting your suits on, putting your dresses on and getting out there,” he stated. “We have got to get back to some sort of normality.
“We all know what to do, the right things to do, the social distancing, the masks, the washing the hands, we’ve put all that in place now and if people act sensibly we can get back to normality again.”
Alan went on to say he “sympathises with” the government, claiming they “can’t be seen to do anything right with anybody”.
He continued: “They’ve been given an unprecedented situation and we’re learning as we go along. We have been told what to do… Let’s get on a bus, just don’t touch your face.
“Those people who like working from home have become a bit complacent, I think, quite honestly. My businesses have all come back…”
When the presenters then pointed out that many were concerned about returning to work, Alan hit back: “There’s a fine line of fearful and enjoying it, to be honest with you. It’s as simple as that.
“What are they fearful of? I’ve got a factory down the road from here that has 300 people that have been working all throughout the pandemic. We have got proper processes in place…”
Alan was similarly dismissive when Phillip pointed out the World Health Organisation’s recent comments about a potential second wave, with the entrepreneur interrupting: “Excuse me, excuse me. I am sick and tired of watching CNN, Sky, Bloomberg, BBC, the lot, because all they do is cause panic amongst people.
“I’m not interested in any of this stuff because you can switch the television on anytime of day and the first thing you see is some more bad news.
“If you go down Whitehall it’s like a ghost town and that’s because all of the Civil Servants, they only need half an excuse not to go to work, we’re paying for them by the way.
“The banks are really annoying. They’re telling people not to come back to work until January… they’re starting to use the pandemic for an excuse for making mass redundancies.”
Shortly after the interview, Alan Sugar’s name began trending on Twitter, with many taking issue with what he had to say…
This isn’t the first time during the pandemic that Alan Sugar has ruffled feathers, though.
He previously came under fire for sharing a conspiracy theory about the origins of coronavirus, and later faced criticism for implying the government and media had overreacted to the crisis.
This Morning airs every weekday from 10am on ITV.