Fired Apprentice candidates insist they had 'no real chance of winning' after 'sabotage'

The two fired candidates on this week say Lord Sugar factors in their business plans and ideas when getting rid of them - insisting it is not all about the task viewers see on screen and so they both had no real chance of winning.

Each week Lord Sugar is supposed to fire the weakest candidates from the losing team, but those exiting the show this week insisted in the final stages he instead weighs up which businesses he might want to invest in as well as personal performance.

Liam Snelin insists he knew he couldn’t win the series from the midway stage as Lord Sugar wasn’t keen on his business.

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He also says his chances of winning the task and surviving were sabotaged when he was not made project manager despite colleagues saying they would vote for him beforehand because of his experience in fashion.

This week candidates were tasked with launching an environmentally conscious, sustainable fashion label. Liam's real life business, Comodo workwear, is in clothing but he was not picked to lead.

He said: “If someone says to you off camera ‘oh, yeah, this is the fashion task. This is for you’.

“And all of your team are saying that and supporting you, and then saying if you win twice as project manager, you’re going to be looking really good going into the final five.

“And then when it comes to voting, the two people that were involved in that conversation, don't vote for you, and someone else involved puts themselves up for Project Manager. It does make you think that it's a tactical decision from them, and unfortunately, it backfired, because we would have won if I was the project manager. And it is what it is.”

Liam also said he knew midway through the process he couldn’t win as Lord Sugar didn’t like his company, which makes comfortable clothes for construction.

Asked if he knew he had the idea he couldn’t win, Liam added: “Yeah I had a rough idea.

“I felt like, Lord Sugar didn't really have the same vision that I had about my business and didn't really understand the concept of fashionable worker work. He sort of said to me multiple times throughout the process that he thinks builders don't care about their appearance. I don't feel like he was the right business partner for me at that late stage in the process.” Mia Collins backed up Liam’s version of events, saying she didn’t have any chance of winning as her business had closed down, so she would have been starting from scratch with Lord Sugar, something unlikely to appeal to him compared to other businesses which are making money.

Mia, who came into the competition as a reserve, had been amongst the favourites to win according to viewers after regularly being on the winning team.

But she said: “If you look at who I was up against, I was the only one that didn't have an operational business. So I think it's at that point that that's when the businesses start being considered. So it's all well and good having a good track record, but it's to win an investment and to work with Lord sugar, I was on the back foot a little bit, having a business that closed down.

“He's a very commercially minded, very experienced person. It has to make sense for him. But for me to come sixth without a business, that's still a huge win.”

With Liam and Mia gone it leaves five candidates next week in the penultimate episode of the series. They come face to face with Lord Sugar’s most trusted advisors for the toughest interviews of their lives.

The hopefuls are Amber-Rose Badrudin, Anisa Khan, Chisola Chitambala, Dean Franklin and Jordan Dargan. The winner gets a £250,000 business investment from Lord Sugar.

* The Apprentice is on Thursday on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer at 9pm.

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