Insider Media Limited

The Midlands’ business professionals are “more driven to succeed” than their Southern counterparts, according to one of Lord Alan Sugar’s protégées. Leicester-based Joanna Riley, who was booted off BBC One's Lord Sugar’s TV show The Apprentice last night, told Insider that the region’s business community is “not afraid to speak up and learn from each other”. Riley also said the two remaining hopefuls were “the better contestants”.

Just two contestants - Chris Bates and Stella English - remain in the process.

Five of this year’s 16 hopefuls were all female entrepreneurs from the Midlands. Riley said the region’s professionals deserved more credit than perhaps they receive.

“A lot of people expect London to have a thriving business community, but businessmen and women from the Midlands are, in general, more driven. We’re not afraid to speak up, learn from each other. It’s a more friendly, family orientated atmosphere, I think”, said the 26-year old. “I hope I did the Midlands proud.”

Mother-of-two Riley said that Lord Sugar was “not intimidating” to be around.

She said: “He is a very normal man, who is very hardworking, and very successful because of it. He genuinely cares about the contestants.”

She described her exit from the process – through which Lord Sugar aims to find an employee for one of his businesses – as “emotional”.

“It was a very emotional day. But Lord Sugar told me that I was leaving with my head held high, which I was proud of,” she said. “We’ve kept in touch, which is great."

Riley, who set up her own cleaning business at the age of 22, said that going into the process to find fame and celebrity was not on her agenda.

“I didn’t go in there half heartedly – I went in there to win”, she said. “I’m not a time-waster, I’m a hard worker. You can’t go into a process like The Apprentice and say you’d be happy to finish seventh or eighth, you have to really want it.”

Riley says she is now looking to build up her cleaning business, and is looking for investors.

“I definitely won’t give up on it, especially as Lord Sugar told me he thought I could do well with it. Ultimately, I would love to be a managing director or the director of a national company. But I’m not too bothered about having nice things, I just want to be a good businesswoman.”

She said that her biggest learning curve in the process came in week two, when Lord Sugar berated her for her intensity during one task.

“I thought I was just being passionate”, she said. “But I definitely toned it down after he warned me. When someone like Lord Sugar advises you that you’re coming across badly, you have to take it and learn from it.”