‘I was fired!’ reveals Margaret Mountford, who won’t be returning to The Apprentice this year

Margaret Mountford has said she thinks she may have been fired from The Apprentice as she wasn’t asked back for the interview round this year.

As a former aide to Alan Sugar on the BBC show, Margaret usually makes a guest appearance towards the end of each series, when candidates are grilled in a series of interviews by some of Lord Sugar’s toughest business friends.

But Margaret says: “They didn't ask me back. I suppose I was fired! No, obviously they weren’t going to want me to carry on doing interviews forever, and nor did I want to do them forever.”

Asked whether she missed being on The Apprentice, Margaret replied: “I’m pleased I did it. I went through a while of thinking that I wasn’t happy, but now I am and it’s opened doors for me.”

Margaret also revealed she would be working with former Apprentice co-star, Nick Hewer, again: “We’re hopefully doing something [for TV] about railways. Nick and I do get on very well - we can be grumpy old people together.”

The Apprentice continues on BBC1, Wednesday, November 26, 9.00pm.