Sugar fires another 'Junior Apprentice'

[dutchman]

Lord Alan Sugar fired 16-year-old Emma Walker on tonight's Junior Apprentice semi-final.

After a task which involved buying and selling Dutch designer products in the UK, Walker's Team Revolution came up short, taking £10,171.45 profit. Tim Ankers and Kirsty Cleaver on Team Instinct won easily with a record-breaking profit of £39,785.09. The total was the highest in any series of The Apprentice.

Arjun Rajyagor, Walker and Zoe Plummer were forced to defend their defeat in the boardroom, with Karren Brady immediately criticising project manager Rajyagor for his pitching skills.

"Do you think you did as good a job as Zoe? They weren't pleased with the pitch," she said. "The feedback was not as good as the feedback about Zoe's pitch."

Questioning Plummer, Lord Sugar said: "You might not know this, you might not recognise it and it takes someone like Uncle Lord Sugar here to point it out to you, that you have this ability to rub people up the wrong way. I'm afraid that is a bad trait in business and I get the feeling that it is [your] way or no other way."

In his final summary, Sugar sent Rajyagor through to the final based on his performance in recent weeks and claimed that it was a tough decision deciding between Zoe and Emma.

"Emma, I think you've got something there, there is no question of it," he said. "Zoe, what worries me about you is, will a leopard ever change its spots? Emma, I've got no worries whatsoever about you succeeding, so with a heavy heart and much regret - you're fired!"

Speaking afterwards, the Cheshire AS Levels student said: "I'm so proud to have been in the semi-final, I'm really pleased that I've been able to do five tasks and I think it has taught me so much.

"I'm just extremely proud of myself. I'm definitely going to carry on with business long-term; it is going to be my life."

The Junior Apprentice final airs tomorrow night at 9pm on BBC One.