Lord Sugar has branded George Galloway a “bloody liar” after he appeared on Good Morning Britain to defend his controversial tweet about Israeli flags that saw him sacked from his job at TalkRadio on Tuesday.
The former MP claimed there were “hundreds of them” being flown by Tottenham fans during the weekend’s Champions League final and it was this he was referencing in a tweet posted shortly after the match.
Galloway was accused by Spurs of “blatant anti-Semitism” and a fierce backlash prompted TalkRadio to terminate his contract.
Historically, many Tottenham supporters have come from the UK’s Jewish community and a number of chairmen have also been Jewish.
When both men appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday morning, it quickly escalated into a heated argument.
Lord Sugar, who attended the football final, said: “He’s taking a load of garbage as usual. I walked with fifteen hundred Tottenham fans and the Liverpool fans from where they dropped me off because we couldn’t get the car through.
“I did not see, and I have never seen, an Israeli flag flown. There were no Israeli flags with the fans. The fans had their blue and white stuff but I never seen an Israeli flag flown.
“He’s a bloody liar. A total liar.”
Galloway intervened, telling Lord Sugar to “just Google it”, adding: “You’ll see hundreds of them.”
Lord Sugar replied: “Just shut your mouth, just shut your mouth for a minute.”
Googling “champions league final 2019 crowd israeli flag” returns a few pictures of football fans holding Israeli flags but none are from Saturday’s final.
Restricting the search to just the past week returns two images of Israeli flags, neither of which are from Saturday.
And an examination of pictures of Saturday’s crowds filed by the main picture agencies does not show a single Israeli flag in the crowd.
There are hundreds of Tottenham flags which, aside from the colours used, bear no resemblance to the Israeli flag.
Asked to apologise for the tweet he posted on Saturday, he said: “I love Jews. I don’t like Israel.”
He claimed that he had not been paid for his radio show “for more than two months”, adding: “There’s much more to this than you know.”
Of the rise in anti-Semitic attacks, he told the ITV show: “Don’t talk to me about attacks. I’ll show you my scars”.
Galloway, former MP for Bradford, is well-known for his anti-Israeli stance as well as his support for conspiracy theories.
Shortly before the offending tweet, Galloway posted another statement which appears to suggest Israel is conducting a campaign against him.
Galloway, former MP for Bradford, hosts shows on Russian state-backed channels such as RT and Sputnik.
A recent ruling from Ofcom found one of his broadcasts breached UK rules in a segment about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
In 2014 it was revealed Galloway, while still serving as an MP, had earned £65,000 in just six months from his appearances on Kremlin-backed RT and from LBP TV, a channel run out of the offices of Press TV, an Iranian channel which is now banned by Ofcom.
He has been outspoken in his belief that accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour party is a “black op” fuelled by “Goebbellian propaganda” to “slander” Jeremy Corbyn.