'You're full of s**t': Apprentice's cocky Stuart Baggs is finally fired

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11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Cocky Stuart Baggs has been given his marching orders from The Apprentice as Lord Sugar admitted he should have been fired long ago.

Baggs - who has been mocked for calling himself "Stuart Baggs, the brand" - was dumped in last night's semi-final along with Jamie Lester and Joanna Riley.

Stella English and Chris Bates will now battle it out in Sunday night's final for a job with the Amstrad boss.

The three eliminated contestants were dropped after the gruelling interview stage of the BBC1 contest for business wannabes.

And as Lord Sugar showed 21-year-old Baggs the door, he told the bullish entrepreneur: "My advisers tell me you are full of s**t. I don't believe a word you say. I'm annoyed with myself Stuart that you have been allowed to come this far in the process. Stuart, you're fired."

Afterwards Baggs complained he had been misunderstood.

He said: "I'm feeling gutted naturally. I thought I was the perfect candidate for the job. The dramatic way in which I've been fired is completely unfair. I think everyone has a lack of understanding of what I'm really about."

Lester claimed he had tried to warn Baggs to rein himself in. He said: "On task one, I called Stuart - I pulled him to one side and said 'Listen you've got to calm down'.

"When he has an audience he gets very excited very quickly and I told him to calm down.
"He's so good but so bad. If he can control that, then I think he'll do very well. But he's got to learn quite quickly I think."

Lester, a 28-year-old property developer, insisted he had no regrets about how he was portrayed on the show.

He said: "I went into the show promising to be how I am. And if I'm passionate about something, if I don't agree with it, I'll show them. Because this is the simple thing about The Apprentice, if you're on the winning team you can't get fired and if you're on the losing team you can get fired.

"But if you're on the losing team and you've stuck up for your rights, which you believe to be true, and you tell Lord Sugar and it makes logical sense, then hopefully you won't be fired. And that did me in good stead I think."

The semi-finals saw a return to the series for Margaret Mountford, who worked as Lord Sugar's aide on previous outings for The Apprentice but who dropped out for the latest run. She was one of the interviewers for last night's programme.

Cleaning company owner Riley was pleased to have reached the semi-finals, and felt she had left on a high as she received no negative feedback before she was fired.

She said: "They didn't [criticise me] and that meant so much to me.

"On The Apprentice on the first week everyone was raving on about how aggressive I am and sometimes I think that can be mistaken for me being quite upfront and honest.

"Because I was so honest and so out there people perceived that to be aggressive and maybe because I've got quite a loud voice as well and that's so not the person I am.

"And when Margaret said 'If she used to be aggressive, she certainly isn't now' - with someone like Margaret who doesn't always give positive feedback it's just fantastic for me."

The 25-year-old working mother also stuck up for Baggs, hailing him as a role model for young people, even if Lord Sugar regretted letting him get so far in the competition.

She said: "We all make mistakes, even Lord Sugar, but Stuart's a young guy and I just think fair play to him.

"He put himself out there at such a young age. In a way young teenagers need to look up to Stuart and have the confidence to go on to The Apprentice and speak to a billionaire like Lord Sugar. He's just got brilliant confidence. I think he's a good guy."

The final of the series will be screened on Sunday on BBC1.

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