Sugar 'goes easy' on young Apprentices

The Apprentice advisor Margaret Mountford has revealed that Sir Alan Sugar is more lenient towards younger contestants.

In an interview with the Radio Times, Mountford admitted that youth often worked favourably for candidates: "The youth thing. He does make allowances for people without the common sense, gravitas or moderation that some learn with years."

The retired lawyer also confessed that Sugar sympathised with applicants who had a difficult upbringing.

"He has a soft spot for those who've had a hard start," she said. "But if someone who was brought up on one crust of bread a week, living in a cardboard box, makes a complete mess of things in task one, they are still going to go."

Fellow advisor Nick Hewer claimed that Lucinda was capable of winning the BBC One reality show.

"Lucinda, who I thought was a Daffy Duck from a different planet, has suddenly become quite shrewd and political," he said.

Hewer added that he initially admired Jenny Celerier but "she [became] a dishonest, lying, cheating rotter".