AHC: Alan Sugar, Prime Minister

Simple enough, surely. With a POD no earlier than the first series of The Apprentice, get Alan Sugar into Downing Street by 2020.
 
I'd think you'd have to stop him becoming a Lord, or have him renounce it. These days it would be very unlikely for a PM to govern from the Lords.
For one thing it makes PMQs complicated.
 
Very easy, as he only became a Lord last year. Have him firmly entrenched in politics long before then and it won't be a problem. Perhaps a by-election in 2007?
 
I think that would do it. Now do we make him leader of an existing political party, or do we shake up the system with a new political force? Is that even possible these days?
 
Perhaps he becomes an MP for a safe-ish Labour seat in a 2007 by-election, politics occurs as in OTL until September 2010 when Ed Balls wins the leadership of the Labour Party. A critic of Balls and of the hack-and-slash Tories (who even last week he criticised for misunderstanding what the private sector can actually do), when Labour are defeated in 2015 he is the dark horse in the race to replace the outgoing Balls.

With the post-Brown Left split between Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper, Alan Sugar MP is elected leader of the Labour Party after the right's favourite, David Miliband drops out in his favour.

The 2015 election saw a narrow defeat for Labour and the near collapse of the Lib Dem vote, with the ten or so Lib Dem MPs remaining part of the Coalition and granting it a majority of 14. Sugar makes much of his media profile and the improving state of the economy, saying now is not the time for austerity and promises increased public spending and 'balanced books'. The public warm to him, thanks in no small part to the huge amount of support he receives from businesses (the largest amount of support a Labour leader has ever received) and Labour enjoy a lead in the polls from 2016 onwards.

In 2018, by-elections, deaths and the defection of Charles Kennedy have brought the Coalition's majority down to 2. Seeking to capitalise on the wave of public support for the upcoming England-hosted World Cup, a tired David Cameron calls a General Election for April. Sugar challenges him to live TV debates and, knowing he will need to throw everything he can into this campaign, Cameron accepts. Sugar is old, but virile. Cameron, on the other hand, does not look a thing like the optimistic boy that Britain let into Number 10 by the back door in 2010. Coming across as competent, grandfatherly and 'the tycoon with a heart', Sugar sweeps the polls and Labour storm to victory (also thanks to their growing business endorsements and a collapse in the 'anti-Socialist' vote being used against them under Balls), achieving a majority of 43.

As Prime Minister, Sugar maintains a policy of a 'firm hand on the tiller', and declares three years into the government that he will resign a year after the next election should he win it. Business grows and although Labour's relationship with the Trade Unions is stretched to near breaking point by Sugar's friendliness with big business, his social reforms (increasing the minimum wage substantially and introducing an opt-in Living Wage alongside tax breaks for businesses) and economic clarity manage to cement Labour as the party of the upwardly-mobile working class and middle class - Sugar was said to 'not get it' when he was asked if he felt he had achieved 'Wilson's dream'.

Leaving foreign policy almost entirely to his cabinet, Sugar governed effectively as a 'second Chancellor' alongside Yvette Cooper, the official resident of Number 11 Downing Street. His Foreign Secretary, Chuka Umunna, oversaw the British role in the peacekeeping operations after the breakup of Pakistan, gaining him international and national acclaim. After the expected victory in 2022, all eyes fell on Umunna as the obvious successor to Sugar, The Sun dubbing him 'The Apprentice' after the Prime Minister's short-lived television programme in the mid-2000s. The rumours were true, as proved by Umunna's promotion to the Chancellorship in the post-election reshuffle, and apart from a challenge from the soft left in the shape of Rachel Reeves, easily won the ballot after Sugar kept his word and resigned in 2023.

Although only Prime Minister for five years, Sugar leaves behind a legacy of a Labour Party with a new base of voters - perhaps the base it has always dreamed of - and a country with balanced finances and booming business. The Mayor of London, Richard Branson, remarks that without him, the American trend of businessmen on the national stage taking to politics would probably never have taken off.

...and I am aware that I change tenses about three times during that. It's half past 1 in the morning here.
 

Thande

Donor
Bit unlikely, but maybe Labour gets desperate about being behind in the poll ratings due to a dull and uncharismatic leader (although that kind of happened in OTL...?) and decide to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the public by voting in a reality TV star as leader?
 
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