FROM the beginning of his troubled time at Number 10, Gordon Brown has talked of his ambition to build “a Government of all talents”, bringing in a succession of expert outsiders as key advisors.

And his latest decision to use Sir Alan Sugar as a government business advisor has sparked a predictable political debate.

The Tories have cried foul, arguing that there is a clear conflict of interest between Sir Alan’s BBC role as the star of hit series The Apprentice, and his government appointment.

But there is surely a distinction between a Government advisor fronting a factual programme and an entertainment show – and The Apprentice is nothing more than a bit of froth.

Sir Alan is cast as a kind of pantomime baddie and, as long as he doesn’t use the programme to make pronouncements about Government policy or criticise the opposition parties, no one should take him too seriously.

Beyond the political bickering, it all just smacks of a deeply unpopular prime minister desperately searching for some stardust in the hope that it might rub off.

We suspect that Mr Brown’s choice of Sir Alan as a business advisor has a great deal to do with the mass appeal of The Apprentice and less to do with the multi-millionaire’s undoubted entrepreneurial experience.

In the same way that the Prime Minister publicly sympathised with Susan Boyle during her Britain’s Got Talent torment, he is looking to the most watched shows on television to regain some much-needed popularity.

If only he could persuade Simon Cowell to become his cultural advisor.