The Apprentice 2017: Lord Sugar fires Elliot Van Emden after shambolic robot task

Elliot Van Emden became the latest boardroom casualty after the boys suffered their third devastating loss in a row.

The barrister found himself at the receiving end of Lord Sugar’s firing finger after the business mogul concluded that he wasn’t “cut out” to be his partner.

The contestants were summoned to London’s Design Museum for a robot challenge which saw them tasked with programming prototype robots before pitching them to retailers, as well as choosing a robotic toy to pitch to buyers in a bid to secure the most orders.

Despite sending in Michaela Wain as project manager to keep the boys from returning to the boardroom, team Vitality failed to beat the girls who made a total profit of £57,827.55 to their £5,785.60.

Lord Sugar said: “This is a b***** shambles. This is the third task, and the third task you’ve lost. I’m not impressed at all, with any of you.”

Michaela opted to bring Elliot and her sub-team leader Harrison Jones into the boardroom to battle for survival.

But after attempting to convince Lord Sugar that, despite not making a sale, he had contributed by warning of spelling mistakes on their advertising board he was kicked out.

Explaining his decision, Sugar said: “Elliot, you may be very articulate, you may be very skilled in being able to talk as a barrister, but I think sometimes people come into this process thinking that what they’ll do, is they’ll just sit back and let everybody else fall on their sword.

“Elliot, I think that your demeanour, your manner is just not up my alley. You’re not cut out to be my business partner.”

On leaving Elliot said: “I do think Lord Sugar made a mistake in firing me. I like to think I’m a salesman, a negotiator and a natural born leader. I think if Lord Sugar had kept me in the process he would have seen all of that.”

The Apprentice is on BBC One, Wednesday at 9pm