Former The Apprentice candidate Amy Anzel has launched a petition to replace Lord Alan Sugar with entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, accusing the tycoon of 'verging on harassment' by 'bashing' contestants. Anzel, who missed out on Lord Sugar's £250,000 investment during last year's series, has been vocal about her experience and was recently blocked by Lord Sugar on Twitter.
In her online petition, Anzel wrote: 'It's time for Lord Sugar to make way for the next generation to take the reigns before The Apprentice is ran into the ground by a poor production team of people who have decided that the show should spend its time making a complete mockery of the candidates and being nothing but damaging to British entrepreneurship… at this point the show is verging on bullying its own candidates!' The petition has so far garnered only a handful of signatures.
Speaking about Lord Sugar's behaviour, Anzel told Gaydio's drivetime show: 'The show in my opinion and my experience on the show was very manipulated and not just in the edit… It was like real time manipulation and not everyone experienced the same amount of that and I feel that was very unfair.' She added: 'I also think that Lord Sugar, the way he bashes them and criticises them and you know, on the verge of harasses them, I just don't think that's of the moment.'
Anzel proposed Steven Bartlett as a replacement, saying: 'I think you need a younger billionaire, like a Steven Bartlett for example, who would probably treat the process differently and have more respect for the candidates.' Lord Sugar has previously insisted The Apprentice would 'flop' without him, telling The Sun that if the BBC found 'someone new' to replace him, 'that's where it may kill itself off'.
