‘We should all move to China’ if Corbyn becomes PM, says Lord Sugar

Lord Sugar has launched an explosive attack on embattled Jeremy Corbyn – claiming “we should all move to China” should the Labour leader be elected as Prime Minister.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, the billionaire star of BBC series The Apprentice hit out at Mr Corbyn’s plans to resolve the housing crisis, and suggested that a combination of Mr Corbyn in Downing Street and Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan in City Hall could “shut down” the London property market.

The former Labour donor, who was ennobled by Gordon Brown in 2009, said: “If they ever got into power that would create a lot of problems.”

Speaking at the launch of his first residential property venture in St James’s, he added: “I don’t know the fellow and what he stands for but certainly if you want the market to stop then you’ve got Batman and Robin in those two.”

Mr Corbyn’s plans to build 100,000 new council and association homes – announced at the Labour Party conference earlier this week – also drew the peer’s ire.

He said: “He and his policies would be the thing that shuts the whole thing down.

“If they ever got anywhere near electing him and him being the Prime Minister then I think we should all move to China or somewhere like that and let this place just rot.”

A spokesman for Mr Khan – who according to Lord Sugar stands “a very good chance” of emerging victorious from next year’s election – maintained that the Tooting MP would be “the most business-friendly London mayor ever”.

Lord Sugar, who in the days following the General Election in May left the Labour Party after 18 years due to its “negative” approach to business and enterprise, is among a number of high-profile donors to have shunned the Corbyn leadership – but the 68-year-old joked that the Islington North MP’s increased popularity could hand him a lucrative business opportunity.

He said: “I might ask that Jeremy Corbyn whatever his name is, the new Labour bloke, keep rabbiting a little bit more, putting a bit of doom and gloom into the country so that we get people selling up quickly so I can buy the stuff off them cheaply.”

The Jewish News has published exclusive extracts from the Amstrad founder’s new book – which you can read here.