The businessman was named Lord Sugar’s next business partner four years ago and went on to use The Apprentice star’s investment and mentorship to boost his digital marketing company Climb Online. With the Brexit date fast approaching, Mark Wright told Express.co.uk said Theresa May was handed the “poison chalice” when she took over proceedings. “I don’t really think it’s her fault,” he said. “She’s made an absolute mess of the situation she was given but she was up the swanny from the moment she took on [the position]. The vote itself was handled poorly.” he continued. Both sides, the Leave and Remain, were really unethical in their approaches and the things they’re saying to get people.
“They made it a campaign of hate and pitting everyone against one another,” Wright added.
He also slammed Boris Johnson for claiming during the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign that the NHS would receive funding of £350 million a week if Britain left the EU.
“Boris Johnson should be in prison,” he said.
Speaking about the ethics of reneging on a statement, Wright said the same situation would have different consequences in business.
“Not only are we held to very high ethical standards in our industry, our shareholders and directors hold each other accountable,” he said.
“If you say that in business, if you then don’t give £350 million a week to the NHS, you go to jail or you lose your job,” he explained. “Losing your job would be really lucky.
“How we have an environment were you can literally make up things, get people on your team, win a situation and then just say, ‘No, that wasn’t true,’… I can’t believe more people don’t take offence by that.”
Wright voiced his disbelief at Johnson still acting in a position of political power, saying: “How he is still in the political landscape after the things he said, the way he conducts himself in his column in The Telegraph, it’s just disgraceful.
“He says things to get headlines, he gets the headlines and then he’s not held accountable so he starts saying more offensive things.
“He needs to be locked up or at least out of the political arena,” he insisted.
The Apprentice winner said he didn’t believe the vote to leave the EU should have been put to the public.
“Margret Thatcher said you should never give a vote like that to the people and she was 100 per cent correct.
“What we’ve got now is a mess,” he added.
Wright also spoke out about the risks Brexit poses to star-ups.
“We use this word in business all the time: uncertainty. What uncertainly means is banks stop loaning money and money becomes less available,” the Climb Online Founder and Director said.
Predicting the UK will see less and less start-ups popping up and having success due to difficulty getting funding, he continued: “Since the 2007 financial crisis is we’ve had a surplus of money that’s been able to be loaned on risk to start-up businesses.
“When you have banks and equity finance and business funding platforms that give money to start-up businesses, it’s a risk. But when people are prepared to take that risk because the economy’s good, we see businesses that you would have never seen pop up become big household names.”
Wright, who said he still gets advice from Lord Sugar with one day’s mentoring a month, will be reunited with The Apprentice boss at Climb Online’s business conference, Climb Con, later this year.
At the event, Lord Sugar will be going head-to-head with his frenemy Piers Morgan, 53, for a 90-minute Q&A session.
Climb Con takes place June 28, 2019 at the Sofitel Hotel, Heathrow. Delegates can choose from three different ticket packages. To book, visit https://www.climbcon.com.