'Apprentice' star Katie: 'I'm a scapegoat'

The Apprentice star Katie Hopkins has claimed that she has been made a "scapegoat" after being fired from her real-life job.

The 31-year-old mother-of-two withdrew from the reality TV show because she could not commit to moving from her Devon home to be nearer to Sir Alan Sugar's London offices.

She returned to her £90,000 job as a global brand consultant at The Met Office, but was told on Monday that she had failed to pass her probationary period.

Hopkins told Radio 1: "The Met Office didn't think about the fact that this is a reality show. You are going to get loads of press and the people that let me go on the show wanted to cover their own backs and I have become, yet again, a scapegoat.

"I am a single mother with two children and I need to make sure my home is secure. So it is actually quite a hard thing to face."