SIR ALAN SUGAR - SIR ALAN 'STUCK' ON WHO TO FIRE BEFORE APPRENTICE FINAL

SIR ALAN 'STUCK' ON WHO TO FIRE BEFORE APPRENTICE FINAL

Sir Alan Sugar has admitted he sent four contestants through to the final of The Apprentice due to being unsure of his preferred winner.

While the climactic round of the BBC1 reality show has typically been contested by two aspiring entrepreneurs, this year's final features four contestants, with Lee McQueen, Claire Young, Helene Speight and Alex Wotherspoon all vying for a £100,000 salary with Sir Alan's company.

And speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Amstrad boss admitted that the strength of the final four meant he had no choice but to keep them all in the competition until its conclusion.

"It gets difficult for me right at the end to decide who should go through," he explained.

"When you are stuck on who to get rid of... I just felt I had a task and it was easy to make two teams and really give it a sense of competition and give them all another crack at the whip."

McQueen and Young will face off against Speight and Wotherspoon in a perfume designing competition, with their former rivals set to return to offer a helping hand.

But Sir Alan explained that convincing the likes of Givenchy and Estee Lauder that their scent is marketable will not be enough to win the fourth series of the competition.

"I'm looking for a very rounded kind of person, not just a good salesperson, but someone who can motivate, is determined and has a hunger for the job," he said.

"They are the kind of boxes that need to be ticked in order to get the job."

The final of the Apprentice is screened at 21:00 BST on BBC1 tonight.