The Apprentice’s Lord Alan Sugar has joked that US president and former The Apprentice US host Donald Trump claims he “works for me”.

The 77-year-old former Tottenham Hotspur owner was speaking ahead of the launch of series 19 of the BBC business show, which he presents.

When asked whether he would consider going into business with the recently inaugurated president, Lord Sugar said: “He will tell you I am in business with him.

“Because The Apprentice format, which was originally owned by someone called Mark Burnett, he sold it to MGM, and apparently, according to President Trump, he has a little shareholding, a small shareholding in the format.

“So he always reminds people that Lord Sugar works for me,” the billionaire added.

“Would I ever go into business with him? I don’t think that opportunity will ever arise, because he’s too busy at the moment being president, he’s just taken over and started to implement some of his promises and plans.”

Trump, who recently entered his second term as president, hosted the first 14 series of the show’s American edition between 2003 and 2015.

He also hosted its star-studded spin-off, The Celebrity Apprentice, until 2017, which starred Piers Morgan, Latoya Jackson, and Stephen Baldwin. After his exit, Trump was replaced by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger until the show was cancelled in the US in 2017.

The Hackney-born entrepreneur continued: “There is a kind of nervous atmosphere amongst people here about being deported, because there’s a lot of non-US citizens here that have got jobs and help to boost the economy, and I don’t know where you draw the line to leave them here, but get rid of the criminals.”

The upcoming series of The Apprentice will see contestants vying to become Lord Sugar’s next business partner, challenged on their skills with the latest technology including AI and holograms.

Lord Sugar said: “The production crew are a very, very clever bunch of people, they come up with these tasks that include technology, and the first person they have to explain it to is me.

The former Amstrad boss said the show had to include it as it was what the younger element of its audience wanted to see, even if he had to learn the technology himself.

“So I have to understand it, and I have to make out I understand it deeply, and I do spend quite a bit of time going through it. So I do understand it in order for me to project my questions at the candidates on it.”

Speaking on series 19, Lord Sugar teased: “We have to have some up-to-date stuff, people are talking about AI, they’re talking about online stuff, we have to include it because that’s what the younger audience wants to see.”

The notoriously stern TV star said: “I hope that my programme encourages (hard work) of course.

“I would like those people to grasp something and realise you’ve got to physically go and do something, physically work somewhere, or have a passion for something that you want to do. So I’m not painting every young person with the same brush.”

The Apprentice will return to screens with 18 budding business people competing for £250,000 worth of investment from its host.

Contestants attempt to impress Lord Sugar and his associates, Baroness Brady and Tim Campbell, by completing a range of business-related tasks in each episode, which will also see participants being fired for poor performance.

The prize was previously a job working alongside Lord Sugar, but this was changed to investment in 2011.

The Apprentice series 19 will air at 9pm on Thursday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer