Lord Sugar announces he is quitting Labour because it is 'anti-business'

Business guru Lord Sugar quit the Labour Party today accusing it of becoming “anti-enterprise” under Ed Miliband.

The Apprentice star said he had been “disillusioned” for some time but kept quiet until after the election.

“In the past year I found myself losing confidence in the party due to their negative business policies and the anti-enterprise concepts they were considering if they were to be elected,” he said.

His departure overshadowed an emergency reshuffle that saw Sadiq Khan leave the shadow cabinet today — to throw his hat into the ring for mayor of London.

The shadow justice secretary, who has organised London’s election campaigns for the past two years, was replaced by Lord Falconer, a veteran of the Blair years.

The new shadow chancellor is Chris Leslie, replacing Ed Balls, who lost his seat. Hilary Benn stands in as shadow foreign secretary, replacing Douglas Alexander.

Labour’s election defeat was a wake-up call ahead of next year’s contest for Mayor of London, leading contenders Dame Tessa Jowell and David Lammy said today.

“The greatest enemy of a good Labour representation in London is complacency — assuming somehow that London is a Labour city,” said Dame Tessa, former Olympics minister.

“Labour hasn’t won the mayoral election since 2008.

“Absolutely it is a wake-up call. Except some of us have never been asleep on this one. The idea we assume that we are going to walk it in 2016 is for the birds.”

Mr Lammy told the Standard: “It is complacent to say we did well enough in London. We did not do well enough in London.”