Fired 'Apprentice' blasts 'bully' Ben

Fired Apprentice candidate Paula Jones has described show rival Ben Clarke as a "thug" and a "dipstick".

Jones, 29, was fired by Sir Alan Sugar on yesterday's show, but insisted that the multi-millionaire picked the wrong candidate for the axe.

The human resource consultant claimed that she deserved to stay because of her leadership skills and contribution to the final product on the cosmetics challenge. However, Sir Alan blamed Jones for the team's costing error, which lost the team the task.

Speaking about her rival Clarke, Jones told Digital Spy: "I think Ben's chances [of winning] are slim. He's shown himself to be something of a thug in the boardroom.

"He's a bit of a bully. He was completely unnecessarily aggressive towards me. He made it personal and it didn't need to be. I had no other choice but to take him in the boardroom and he took it personally."

She also claimed that the 22-year-old stockbroker's one-liners on the show were "contrived".

"He's got all these one-liners that he's obviously rehearsed a thousand times to come on the show with," said Jones. "But you just think, why are you like that? He's young and I think he's a bit of no-mark to be honest, so he has to make up for it my wearing fluorescent socks and trotting out nonsense.

"I can't imagine he'll go much further because he's not making any friends. I don't hold anything against him, but I think he's a bit of a dipstick."

The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.

> Click here to read our interview with Paula Jones