Apprentice shock decision

Lord Sugar fires former favourite as the search continues...

10:50 09 December 2010

Liz Locke has been fired from the Apprentice boardroom in a shock decision by Lord Sugar.

The 24-year-old investment banker was sent home, despite being the bookmakers' favourite to win the show.

Liz found herself back in the boardroom after her team, project managed by Stuart Baggs, lost the London tourism task.

The two teams set up rival tour companies and were competing against each other to make the most money.

Team Apollo went for a cockney open-topped bus tour, while Synergy chose a ghosts and ghouls trip.

Despite an early mistake from Chris Bates, where he offered a tourist centre 20 per cent of their total revenue, Synergy won the task with a profit of £1,099.33.

Jamie Lester, Chris and project manager Joanna Riley enjoyed a trip to Jersey and a meal at a Michelin starred restaurant as a reward.

Brought back into the boardroom were Liz, Stella English and Stuart, who battled it out for their chance to stay.

In the end, it was between Baggs and Liz, with Stuart's speech about being a young entrepreneur winning over the Lord.

He summed up, saying: "I need someone very special who is going to find me new ideas.

"As hard as you work and as hard as you have worked, I'm going to let you go. Liz, You're fired."

Afterwards, Liz said: "In that boardroom I felt a sinking feeling as I felt Lord Sugar looking at Stuart with a kind of admiration - a bit like he saw him as a mini Sugar. It was really bizarre."

Next week sees the return of Lord Sugar's former aide, Margaret Mountford, who will feature in the interview process.

Keep up with the Apprentice action, Wednesday's at 9pm on BBC One.