Apprentice hits out

Former winner criticises Lord Sugar and the programme...

13:19 10 October 2011

Lord Sugar's Apprentice Stella English has hit out at the businessman and the show.

English, who won the £100,000-a-year position in the 2010 show handed in her notice, after being informed that her contract would not be renewed, reports the Mail on Sunday.

Stella told the newspaper:

"ItÂ’s just been an appalling experience. IÂ’ve wasted two years of my life when I could have been doing something better.

"IÂ’ve been working for years and IÂ’ve never seen anything like it in business. The minute Lord Sugar put me in a company he didn't run there were no prospects for my career."

"In no way was I his 'Apprentice' and there were times when he really just didn't want to know. At the end, I realised he absolutely didn't have my interests at heart."

The paper reports that the problems began when English began a three-month trial at SugarÂ’s company, Viglen as part of the competition.

She claims there was no job for her there and her responsibilities were vague.

English later quit the role after being given a junior position, but was then offered a more senior position at YouView.

However, a few weeks ago English claims that Sugar told her that her contract was coming to end, and that he had ‘met his obligations to her’, which prompted English to hand in her resignation.

Stella added:

“He told me I was there to protect the BBC and to protect the integrity of the show, to protect himself and – finally – to protect me. I couldn’t believe he said that.

"IÂ’d gone to work there under a pretence. He had strung me along and now he was washing his hands of me."