If you've been watching 'The Apprentice' this year, you'll be aware that, as always, there are a couple of 'characters' amongst the group.
One of them is undoubtedly Lottie Lion, the 19-year-old who is not shy about putting her opinion across and has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way with her brusque manner.
In recent days, an off-camera spat between her and Lubna Farhan (spoiler: who was fired on Wednesday's episode) has come to light. Lion allegedly told her co-star to 'Shut up, Gandhi' in a WhatsApp group text.
Now, the BBC have released a statement condemning Lion's comments, calling them 'wholly unacceptable'.
"While this happened on a private messenger service once filming had concluded, the BBC nevertheless still expects the candidates to behave appropriately," it read.
"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."
Lion, meanwhile, insisted that her comments had been taken out of context.
"My use of the word Gandhi was misinterpreted," she told PA. "It was as candidates in the group chat had been quoting Gandhi previously."
"The comments were taken out of context, and I ask the public not to make judgment without knowing the full context. At the moment, I would like my focus to be on the show, and I'm not interested in negative media attention."
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Former contestant Souleyman Bah also claimed to have witnessed 'racist comments' while on the show - although he did not name the perpetrator.
"I think there were comments that, you know, yeah… I won't get into the details of it," he said on a recent podcast. "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."
