The BBC has condemned comments made by The Apprentice contestant Lottie Lion, after she referred to a fellow contestant as “Ghandi” in a WhatsApp chat. 

Lottie hit headlines earlier this month after she was accused of racism by one of her competitors, Lubna Farham, who is of Pakistani heritage.

Lubna claimed that Lottie told her to her “shut up, Gandhi” in a WhatsApp group message with their fellow contestants.

Lottie later insisted that she was not being racist, claiming the group had previously been sharing quotes from Gandhi prior to her comment.

While the BBC initially declined to comment when the story original broke, they have now said Lottie’s comments were “wholly unacceptable”. 

A spokesperson for the show said: “While this happened on a private messenger service once filming had concluded, the BBC nevertheless still expects the candidates to behave appropriately.

“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.”

Lottie previously tweeted that The Sun’s allegations were “utterly disgusting” and had been written to “ruin her career”.

“Do not believe everything you read online… it is desperate what some people will say for a bit of money,” she tweeted in response to The Sun. “Racism is unacceptable but so is false news.

“I won’t be entertaining this further.”

However, she later spoke to the Press Association news agency, stating: “It is not true that I would ever be racist. My use of the word Gandhi was misinterpreted, it was as candidates in the group chat had been quoting Gandhi previously.”

She continued: “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.”

The Apprentice continues on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.