'HE DIDN'T CONTRIBUTE MUCH'
The Apprentice’s Claude Littner SLAMS Lord Alan Sugar’s former adviser Nick Hewer
The businessman made his bold comments on GMB today
STRAIGHT-TALKING Claude Littner has BLASTED Sir Alan Sugar's former adviser Nick Hewer for pulling funny faces and doing little else during his time on The Apprentice.
Business executive Claude stepped into his shoes in 2015 yet he was already known to fans of the BBC show, after he was seen grilling hopefuls on the truth of the details on their CV's in the programme's regular interview episodes.
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Yet he admitted he wasn't convinced about making the switch to Lord Sugar's right-hand man and said: "When you saw him (Nick) on TV he looked like he was just making faces and didn't contribute much.
"I thought it was a real non job so I thought I will do the interviews."
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He added to Good Morning Britain show hosts Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid: "But actually there's an awful lot Karen and I do behind the scenes to advise Lord Sugar.
"Without us he's got no chance of being in a position to determine who is really the best person to fire."
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The new series of the action-packed drama starts tonight.
Talking of the candidates, who are renowned fort being cocky and over-confident, he told the pair he didn't feel sorry for them.
Claude said: "They are trying their best.
"But that's not quite often good enough.
"They make a small mistake which has drastic effects."
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Prior to their chat, presenter Susanna hit behind a cushion to show how scared she was of Claude's fierce reputation.
Yet afterwards she quipped: "You're not a rottweiler, are you?"
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Ahead of tonight's opening episode of the new series, the 13th of its kind, Lord Sugar exclusively told The Sun he would quit - unless producers changed the format of giving the winner a job.
He said he was fed up of the old format in which he had to give the winner a highly paid job at one of his own firms.
In an exclusive interview the mogul said the original prize infuriated existing employees at his companies who found themselves having to make way for a newbie.
He explained: “It wasn’t a good idea and that was it.
“I said, ‘I’m not doing that any more’.”
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As a result of his threat to quit, the BBC altered the format in 2011 so the billionaire now invests £250,000 in the lucky finalist’s business idea.
He continued: “That was the only basis on which I was going to continue doing it. Giving someone a job was turning out to be quite difficult.
“It was problematic as far as other employees were concerned. You don’t just create a job out of thin air. Otherwise you don’t have a good business do you? There was never an empty job.
“I would frankly not be still doing this if I hadn’t changed the format.”
This year’s series, which begins tonight at 9pm on BBC1, starts with a flurry of gags from the main man.
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