Apprentice star Lord Sugar waded into the London mayoral battle today by urging people not to vote for Ken Livingstone.
The Labour peer - whose catchphrase is “You’re fired” - defied leader Ed Miliband by telling his 1.8 million followers on Twitter not to back the party’s official candidate.
The intervention could amount to a breach of party rules, and is bound to spark calls for the business mogul to be disciplined.
Mr Livingstone was himself previously expelled from Labour after standing as an independent against its candidate in the 2000 race.
“I don’t care if Ed Miliband is backing Livingstone,” Mr Sugar wrote. “I seriously suggest NO ONE votes for Livingstone in the Mayoral elections.”
While Mr Sugar did not explicitly endorse incumbent mayor Boris Johnson, his comments will help the Conservative, who is seeking re-election on May 3rd. He added that the contest between Mr Johnson and Mr Livingstone was a “real issue”.
“Livingstone must NOT get in on 3rd May,” he wrote.
A senior Labour source indicated Mr Sugar would not face disciplinary action over the comments.
“There is a long history of Lord Sugar and Ken Livingstone not being the best of friends,” the source said. “Lord Sugar was not recommending people vote for any of Ken’s opponents. He is a Labour peer but Lord Sugar’s views are very much his own.”
A source from Mr Livingstone’s campaign said: “I don’t think it is a great surprise to anybody. Everyone knows that Ken and Lord Sugar aren’t that friendly.”
Mr Sugar (65), was given a seat in the House of Lords by former prime minister Gordon Brown.
The Amshold Group Ltd. chairman, who made his fortune selling consumer electronics, gave more than £69,000 to Labour last year, including donating directly to leader Ed Miliband's office, according to the Electoral Commission. That made him one of the party's most generous individual supporters.
Mr Johnson had 53 per cent support compared with 47 per cent for Mr Livingstone in a choice between the two, according to a ComRes Ltd. poll published in the Evening Standard newspaper last week.
Mr Livingstone had the job for two terms before losing to Mr Johnson in 2008.