Lord Sugar today hit out at the Government's "bargain basement" sale of Royal Mail and demanded an inquiry to find out who had profited from it.

The star of the BBC1 series The Apprentice made his comments as Government business spokesman Lord Popat said the banks who helped with the sale could receive up to £18.4 million in fees.

The Government has come under fire after the shares soared from the offer price of 330p when the majority of Royal Mail was sold off this month to at times more than £5.

Labour peer Lord Sugar said at question time in the House of Lords that the Government had appointed the banks UBS, Lazards and Goldman Sachs for their "so called expertise in understanding the correct timing and pricing of the flotation of the Royal Mail".

He demanded from Lord Popat: "Why did these so called experts sell the stock at such low levels and get it totally wrong to such an extent that the stock rose by 33% the day afterwards and since then 54% on the issue price?

"Bearing in mind other reputable banks had come on record giving a valuation of £5 billion, why were these banks ignored and what will you be doing by way of an inquiry in finding out who the lucky institutions were that underwrote this bargain basement sale?"

Lord Popat said the key objective had been to "secure value for money for the taxpayer".

Pressed by Labour's Lord Donoughue on the level of fees paid to the banks, Lord Popat said: "The underwriting banks will share a maximum fee of 1.2% of the IPO receipts or £16.9 million. This maximum includes a potential discretionary fee of £4.2 million. The actual fee will be finalised shortly. Lazards will receive £1.5 million as the Government's independent adviser."

Lord Donoughue, a former adviser to prime ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, told peers: "This morning the share price of Royal Mail reached a peak of 507p - an advance of over 50% on the offer price."

He asked Lord Popat: "In light of that, would you agree with the comment in the Financial Times on Saturday, 'the only loser is the taxpayer whose furniture has been flogged for a fraction of its market price'?

"Will the Government not try to recover something for the ripped-off taxpayer by at least insisting that they do not pay these exorbitant fees for these inadequate advisers?"

Lord Popat told him: "We were given advice by a large number of institutions. We took into account a recent flotation of a similar organisation in Belgium.

"The range we got was between 260p and 330p. We pitched at the higher amount of 330p. This flotation was a very successful flotation despite the difficulties that are happening in America and despite the impending strike by the union."

Lord Donoughue pressed him on whether shares were issued at 330p to any banks advising on the price or to their employees.

Lord Popat replied: "No individual employee working on the transaction nor investment bank division was allocated shares.

"Other divisions of our banking advisers separated from the investment banking divisions by information barriers were allocated 13 million shares. This is a standard practice."

For Labour, shadow business minister Lord Young of Norwood Green asked: "Can you give an assurance that the remaining 38% of shares will not be sold at another knock-down price?"

Lord Popat said there was an agreement with Royal Mail that the remaining shares would not be sold for six months.

"The sale of the shares thereafter will depend on the circumstances and how Royal Mail is performing in terms of its business profit and in terms of cash the business will generate," he said.

Tory Lord Dobbs hailed the "success of this exceptional privatisation, which has placed the Royal Mail on a footing that was undreamed of four years ago".

Lord Popat said the future of the company was "much brighter" than it had been. "Had we pitched a price higher than 330 and had it failed I'm sure Labour would have blamed us for failing," he added.