The Apprentice has fallen under fire this year after producers were accused of ignoring a string of racist incidents.

Contestant Lottie Lion has found herself embroiled in an online spat with her rival Lubna Farhan, after she told the star ‘shut up, Gandhi’ before threatening to ‘f*** her up’ in a group chat.

And the fired hopeful Souleyman Bah has also spoken out, saying he too experienced similar comments during his brief stint on the show.

After the two occurrences came to light, a BBC spokesperson addressed the incidents to Metro.co.uk.

They told us: ‘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.’

Their statement comes after Souleyman made an appearance on the podcast The Wake Up Call.

Here he spoke to Sian Gabbidon about his time on the show, and the brawl between Lottie and Lubna.

He said: ‘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.

‘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.’

Bah then hinted that bosses were made aware of his complaint, but are yet to take any action.

‘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,’ he added.

Lottie has furiously denied being racist and the BBC have confirmed they will be looking into ‘a complaint’.

He continued: ‘I am just happy that there’s finally been a formal investigation into it.

‘My main concern was that nothing was being done about it but I think it’s good that the production company are looking into and will hopefully come to a conclusion.

‘I haven’t spoken to Lottie directly and to be honest I wouldn’t want to either but I want to as much as I felt affected by it I wanted to pull myself away from it because it was quite negative and the show is supposed to be positive so I want to focus more on that.’

The Apprentice airs Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC One.

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