Taylor: 'Brady can't match Mountford'

Philip Taylor has claimed that the 2010 series of The Apprentice will be weaker without Margaret Mountford.

Mountford, who worked as Sir Alan Sugar's "eyes and ears" on the show for five years, announced that she was leaving at the end of the last series. The 56-year-old corporate lawyer quit to concentrate solely on her PhD in papyrology.

Taylor, who was a contestant on the 2009 series, said that Mountford's replacement Karen Brady would struggle to match up to her predecessor.

"I think she is a huge loss," Taylor told DS. "What people liked about Margaret was that she just sat in the background and kept quiet. She had a world of experience and it was the whole look with the white hair - she just made great TV.

"With Karen Brady, I don't know whether it will work as well. She's a very astute businesswoman, but Nick and Margaret were very good at the slight, minor things, whereas I don't think Karen has that about her."

The 30-year-old reality TV star revealed last November that he was working on an Organic Cotton Underwear company.