The BBC has come under fire after the TV show The Apprentice failed to carry out an appropriate background check on one of its contestants who expressed Islamophobic posts on X.
Levi Hodgetts-Hague branded Muslims as “dirty”, “vile”, and called for “#NoSharia” in now-deleted posts on social media app X (formerly Twitter) in 2013.
Hodgetts-Hague has since offered a public apology and expressed remorse for his actions, which he claims were missing context.
Hodgetts-Hague, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, is a former RAF veteran and now owns a business which produces personalised pet cremation urns.
Islamophobic tweets
The deleted posts from Hodgetts-Hague from 2013 included attacks on Islam and also expressed support for far-right Islamophobe Tommy Robinson. The posts were made public by The Sun, but are no longer accessible due to the closure of the account under the username @Lev1_H.
In his social media rants from October 2012, Hodgetts-Hague claimed he was making reference to Abu Hamza, who was extradited from the UK to New York on terror charges.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
He tagged far-right activist Tommy Robinson and tweeted: “Thank f*** that extremist dirty Muslim preacher getting took out of this country. Just a waste of money and a waste of space. F*** off.”
In May 2013, Hague posted: “Just heard a right joke… Islam is a religion of peace. F*** LOL. Please tell me how beheading, bombing innocent people peace? #IslamAJoke.”
Adding to his support for Tommy Robinson, he wrote: “Why is it, if you stand for your British beliefs in a British country like EDLTrobinson, your hit with racist brush!? #NoSharia #Joke.”
A separate post read: “We need to unite with EDLTrobinson not against! We have had enough of the acts of Islam time for British people to make a stand.”
The contestant was meant to appear on the show’s 20th edition, but the BBC, who own the licence to air the show, have heavily criticised the production company who “failed to flag the offensive posts.”
BBC address the controversy
A BBC spokesperson said the views presented in the posts were “totally unacceptable” and the organisation was taking this “extremely seriously.”
“We were completely unaware that this contestant had made such abhorrent comments,” they said.
“We have asked the independent production company to fully review the social media checks undertaken, given the process has clearly failed in this instance.”
The filming of the show concluded in 2025, in which it is set to launch its 20th series on January 29, where 20 candidates are competing for the chance to win £250,000 for their business ideas.
The Sun has reported that one of the contestants is a Muslim woman and it is believed the show will still be aired.
Public apology
Hodgetts-Hague offered a swift public apology as soon as the tweets were brought to light to the BBC last night, saying: “Firstly I do want to apologise for any offence that the 20 year old me has caused you. Sadly, at 20 I wasn’t good at articulating and sadly the tweets I posted gave zero context, and like with anything that is dug up from the past, by the media, it gets twisted.”
Hodgetts-Hague stated that all the tweets and remarks he made were in response to events and developments in the media on that day, such as the extradition of Abu Hamza or the killing of soldier Lee Rigby by terrorists.
“Tweet 5/10/2012: This tweet was written on the day in relation to the extradition of Abu Hamza, the man who preached hate, incited murder and was behind some of the early 2000’s terrorists attacks. Here i stated “Dirty muslim preacher” I was NOT tarnishing all Muslims with this, this was aimed at Abu Hamza, which looking back was not the right way to articulate this.”
“These tweets are the only negative tweets on my whole twitter (over 2000 tweets were made) We all have skeletons in the closet, especially in our younger years and I do hold my hands up and accept that my terminology 13/14 years ago is wrong.
“Mistakes are only mistakes if you don’t learn from them. This is the old me and does not represent who I am today. I am proud of the man I am today, and that’s all that matters,” the statement concluded.
