The Apprentice: Fired candidate Souleyman Bah says he experienced racism on BBC show

He suggested that producers failed to act on the alleged racist behaviour

Fired Apprentice candidate Souleyman Bah has accused some candidates on this year’s series of being racist during his time on the show.

The accusations come after a backlash to the BBC show for firing four non-white contestants in the first four weeks of the latest series.

Speaking to last year’s winner Sian Gabbidon on her podcast The Wake Up Call, Bah answered “yes” when asked if he experienced racism from anybody in the process.

“I think there were comments that, you know, yeah... I won’t get into the details of it, but I think it was definitely what it was,” he said.

Bah continued: “I will counter that by saying it was ignorance, really. It’s definitely ignorant racism. I think there’s blatant racism and then there’s ignorant racism.”

He suggested that producers failed to act on the alleged racist behaviour.

“I think my beef isn’t with the perpetrator per se; its more for what’s been done about it. It seems that I’m still waiting for the outcome.”

In the podcast episode, Gabbidon, who beat Camilla Ainsworth to Lord Sugar's £250,000 business investment last December, said she did not experience racism during her time on the show.

Earlier this month, it was reported that candidate Lottie Lion, 19, had referred to Lubna Farhan, whose parents hail from Pakistan, as “Gandhi” in a WhatsApp group chat ahead of the premiere of this year’s series.

When asked about the reports by The Independent, Lubna – who was fired in the BBC show’s latest episode – commented: "I would say there is truth to [the reports], however there’s no point me talking about it because it has already been spoken about.”

While the BBC did not comment on Bah's experience of racism, a spokesperson for the corporation said of Lion's remarks: “While this happened on a private messenger service once filming had concluded, the BBC nevertheless still expects the candidates to behave appropriately. The production company have looked into the issue and reported back, Lottie has been informed that her comments were wholly unacceptable and is in no doubt about our view on this.”

You can read our interview with Lubna here and our interview with Souleyman here.

The Apprentice continues weekly at 9pm on BBC One.