Lord Sugar, the Labour peer and star of The Apprentice, has attacked the editor of the Daily Mail for being a "tyrant" and demanded parliament "flex its muscles" and get him fired.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Tuesday evening, Lord Sugar tore into Paul Dacre in the wake of the row over his decision to go after the "evil legacy" of Ed Miliband's father Ralph. He said the incident was "further evidence why newspapers cant be trusted to regulate themselves".
"The attack is a kind of final straw where the tyrant Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, has gone too far this time. And my Lords it is about time all parties join again and demand of shareholders and owners of the Daily Mail remove this nasty man. He is not fit or a proper person to be an editor of a national newspaper," Lord Sugar said.
"The culture he has created at the Daily Mail has attracted nastiest bunch of vindictive, arrogant and some would say racist people who call themselves journalists over the years. The Daily Mail has harassed members of all parties unfairly.
He added: "It is about time parliament showed some unity and flexed its muscles to deal with these nasty people once and for all. We have to stand up to these bullies, too many people have held back in the past. If one dares to criticise the Daily Mail they will get paid back by being attacked even more. There is no fair system of redress when it comes to them.
Lord Sugar was speaking after culture secretary Maria Miller told MPs the newspaper industry's proposals for the future regulation of the press in the wake of the hacking scandal had been rejected by ministers. Miller said the Conservative Party was ready to make a number of changes to the government's plan for a royal charter, in response to concerns raised by the industry during talks over the summer.
Miller will hold talks over the next two days with Labour and Liberal Democrats in the hope of securing agreement for an amended charter to be published on Friday and approved by the Privy Council on October 30.