The BBC is facing fresh controversy after it emerged that a contestant on the upcoming series of The Apprentice had posted racist and sexist content on social media.
It is understood that Levi Hague, a 33-year-old entrepreneur and former RAF serviceman, described Muslims as "dirty" in historic tweets and used derogatory language about women.
The broadcaster has labelled the comments "totally unacceptable" and confirmed it was unaware of the posts before being alerted to their existence.
Anti-racism campaigner Mickey Ambrose condemned the remarks as "vile" and questioned whether licence fee payers should be funding a platform for someone with such views.
The revelations come ahead of the programme's 20th series, which will see Mr Hague compete alongside 19 other candidates for a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar.
The offensive posts, which dated from 2012 and 2013, remained publicly visible until The Sun on Sunday brought them to the BBC's attention, after which they were deleted.
In October 2012, Mr Hague appeared to reference the extradition of hate preacher Abu Hamza, tagging far-right figure Tommy Robinson and describing the cleric as an "extremist dirty muslim preacher" who was "a waste of money and waste of space".
Months later, he mocked Islam as "a religion of peace" and questioned how "beheading, bombing innocent people" could be considered peaceful.
The new series of The Apprentice is set to launch on January 29
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The former serviceman also expressed support for the English Defence League, urging people to "unite" with Mr Robinson rather than oppose him.
Beyond the anti-Muslim rhetoric, Mr Hague referred to women as "s**gs" and described those from his hometown of Doncaster as "dogs".
Shadow Culture Secretary Nigel Huddleston demanded an urgent investigation into how Hague passed the corporation's vetting procedures.
"The BBC has a responsibility to uphold the highest standards and to ensure that those given such a prominent platform have been properly vetted," he told The Sun.
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The Alan Sugar series has been on air since 2005
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"Serious questions must now be asked about how this individual passed the BBC's checks, and the Corporation should urgently investigate what went wrong."
Mr Ambrose was equally scathing in his assessment, describing the situation as "an embarrassment" and questioning whether the public should be funding such exposure.
He asked: "Are we really paying our licence fee to publicise a person like this?" The publication reports.
"What he's said is vile, it's very discriminatory and he should never have been allowed on the show."
Mr Hague has since issued a statement expressing shame and embarrassment over the decade-old posts, offering "sincere apologies to all who I've offended" including his fellow candidates.
"I take full accountability for the publishing of those posts. They are not a reflection of the values I uphold today," he said, adding that he apologised to the production team for failing to disclose the account.
The BBC confirmed it had been 'unaware' of Mr Hague's 'abhorrent' comments
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A BBC spokesperson told GB News: "We were completely unaware that this contestant had made such abhorrent comments.
"We have asked the independent production company for further assurances on their social media checks given the process has not been completed to a satisfactory standard in this instance.
"The views presented are totally unacceptable and we are taking this extremely seriously.”
The Sun reports that Naked acknowledged that their background checks, conducted through third-party providers, had failed to identify the offensive material despite what they described as "rigorous due diligence".
The company stated it would be reviewing its procedures going forward.