Sugar vs Clegg: Twitter spat

Clegg lashes out at ‘thin-skinned’ Alan Sugar

Clegg lashes out at ‘thin-skinned’ Alan Sugar

Nick Clegg hit back at Alan Sugar today, after the Apprentice star issued a series of abusive tweets at the deputy prime minister.

The string of tweets branded Clegg "an embarrassment" and "a joke".

"Calamity Clegg, as he should be known, is talking rubbish. I don't have bus pass and I pay for my TV licence like everyone else," Sugar wrote.

"Clegg is an embarrassment to coalition for his gaffes. I don't have and don't want a free bus pass. I pay for my TV Licence as I am 66 not 75.

"Why doesn't Cameron silence this idiot Clegg? How many more gaffes can he spout off on TV? Makes the coalition look like a joke."

Clegg was asked about the tweets during his weekly phone-in show on LBC.

"He's slightly thin-skinned. He drives around in this great big Bentley on primetime television, he wafts around the House of Lords in ermine, and then he seems to be very offended when I point out that he has got a bob or two," he said.

"I don't see why someone like him should be entitled to a winter fuel payment. No doubt, having said that, I will get another torrent of classic Sugar tweet-abuse this morning. Anyway, that's the way I see things."

Sugar has a track record of going on the offensive against those who criticise him.

The Labour peer threatened Daily Mail sketch writer Quentin Letts with a libel suit after he called him "stupid" and suggested he only received his peerage because he was a television personality.