Alan Sugar

Alan Michael Sugar was born on 24 March 1947 in Clapton, Hackney, East London, into a Jewish family. His father, Nathan, was a tailor in the garment industry of the East End. His maternal grandparents were born in Russia, and his paternal grandfather was born in Poland. Sugar's paternal grandmother, Sarah Sugar, was born in London to Polish parents.

When Sugar was young, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly hair, he was nicknamed "Mop head", a name that he still goes by in the present day. He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in Upper Clapton, Hackney, and made extra money by working at a greengrocers. After leaving school at the age of 16, he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education.

Amsair

Amsair Executive Aviation was founded in 1993, and is run by Sugar's son Daniel. As with Amstrad, the name Amsair is an acronym taken from the initials of Sugar's name "Alan Michael Sugar Air." Amsair operates a large Cessna fleet, and one Embraer Legacy 650 with the registration G-SUGA, offering business and executive jet charters.

Amsprop

Amsprop is a property investment firm owned by Sugar and is now controlled by his son Daniel.

Simon Ambrose, winner of the 2007 series of The Apprentice, started working for Amsprop Estates after the series finished. However, in April 2010, he was reported to be leaving to start his own venture.

Sugar has stated that he is an atheist, but remains proud of his Jewish heritage. He married Ann Simons, a former hairdresser, on 28 April 1968 at Great Portland Street, London. They have two sons, Daniel and Simon, and a daughter, Louise. The couple formerly lived mainly in Chigwell, Essex.

On 10 June 2020, Sugar, a pilot since 1975, announced that he was taking delivery of a new 2020 Cirrus SR22T single-engine aircraft. During an attempted landing in his Cirrus at the grass airfield Manchester Barton Aerodrome on 5 July 2008, he overshot the runway after touchdown due to poor weather and wet field conditions. No injuries were sustained, although the plane was slightly damaged and consequently grounded.

In 2023, Sugar had an estimated fortune of £1.02 billion.

In the 2020s, Sugar relocated to Australia permanently as a tax exile to help mitigate his UK tax liability. The move backfired when his financial advisers failed to take account of 2010 tax reforms that apply to peers of the realm. As a result, Sugar paid £186m to HMRC for tax owed on share dividends that he received from his company Amshold in 2021, amounting to £390m.

In February 2009, it was reported that Sugar had initiated legal proceedings against The Sun newspaper following a report that he had been named on a "hit list" of British Jews in response to Israel's ongoing military operation in Gaza. The threats are alleged to have been made by Glen Jenvey, the source of the original story in The Sun, who posted to a Muslim website under a false identity.

In February 2022, 70-year-old Patrick Gomes was jailed for three years and six months for sending antisemitic death threats to Sugar, in response to his comments on antisemitism in the Labour Party.

From 1997 until 2015, Sugar was a member of the Labour Party. In 2001, he was one of Labour's top 50 donors, giving £200,000 to its head office.

Regarding the 1970s UK law which states that it is discriminatory and hence illegal for women to be asked at interview whether they plan to have children, Sugar was quoted as saying in 2008, "These laws are counter-productive for women, that's the bottom line. You're not allowed to ask, so it's easy – just don't employ them. It will get harder to get a job as a woman."

In February 2009 it was reported that Sugar had been approached to be the Labour candidate for Mayor of London in 2012. Sugar subsequently ridiculed the suggestion. In June 2009 it was reported that he would be given a life peerage by prime minister Gordon Brown and had been offered a job as the government's "Enterprise Champion". On 7 June 2009, Sugar sought to clarify the non-political nature of his appointment. He stated that he would not be joining the government, that the appointment was politically neutral, and that all he wanted to do was help businesses and entrepreneurs. On 20 July 2009, he was made Baron Sugar, of Clapton, in the London Borough of Hackney. He made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 25 November 2009.

In 2011, Sugar donated a total of £69,000 to Labour or to leader Ed Miliband's office, but the following year he defied party rules to implore the public to not vote for its candidate for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone. In August 2014, Sugar was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

According to the BBC in 2015, Sugar had donated £163,827 to Labour since Miliband had become leader in 2010, but on 11 May 2015, four days after the Conservative Party won that year's general election, Sugar announced that he was leaving Labour, explaining that he had lost confidence in the party's business policies. From 11 May 2015 to 8 October 2017, he sat in the Lords as a non-affiliated peer. Since 9 October 2017, he has sat as a crossbencher.

Before the 2016 London mayoral election, Sugar said that he is popular politically, and repeatedly urged the public to not vote for the eventual winner, Labour candidate Sadiq Khan. In 2016, Sugar endorsed the "Remain" campaign for the referendum on membership of the European Union. He was reappointed to the Enterprise Champion role in 2016 by prime minister David Cameron.

In May 2017, Sugar endorsed the Conservative Party at that year's general election. After the election he criticised Theresa May's Conservative campaign, and people who voted for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

On 31 March 2018, after complaints from Labour politicians, Sugar deleted a tweet showing an edited image of Corbyn in a car with Adolf Hitler, which he posted after Corbyn said the party "must do better" in resolving the party's problems with antisemitism. On 5 April 2018, Sugar published an ode critical of Corbyn, and in December that year, he stated that he would leave Britain if Corbyn became prime minister.

Sugar endorsed Boris Johnson during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, and endorsed the party in that year's general election.

Sugar's participation in House of Lords business has been relatively infrequent, including a period of no spoken contributions from 2017 to 2025. He has not voted since October 2017. Sugar went on a leave of absence from the House of Lords on 6 October 2025.

Sugar has been accused of having an "outdated" attitude towards women.

On 30 September 2013, Sugar tweeted a picture of Chinese child crying 'because he was told off for leaving production line of iPhone 5'. The message was investigated by the Merseyside police force's specialist hate crime investigation team, who decided that it should be classed as a "hate incident" although no crime had taken place.