Coventry-born Majid Nagra, the latest contestant to be kicked out of The Apprentice said he was baffled as to why Sir Alan Sugar's aide Margaret Mountford suggested he be fired.

He joked that Mountford had probably fancied his team leader. The 28-year-old was axed from the business reality TV show after his team Empire lost the task.

The business hopefuls were told to design an innovative piece of fitness equipment and sell it to sports retailers.

Empire, which this week was made up of four men and two women, failed to impress retailers with their multi-purpose fitness creation, gleaning just 500 orders.

Sir Alan lambasted the losing team, saying: "Don't you lot get it? You totally missed your target audience, you totally missed what the market wants. You came up with some lump of wood and you're sitting here wondering why you didn't get any orders. I know why you didn't get any orders! The whole thing sucks!"

Despite the problems with the product, which had been conceived by Clarke, on the advice of Mountford, Sir Alan fired Nagra, telling him he seemed to be "hanging around not doing much".

But speaking after being fired, Nagra said she had no basis for this judgment.

"When I play back the bits with me and Margaret and the discussions we had, there was no substance to it ... it was just us discussing ideas and stuff like that," he said.

Asked why he thought Mountford has described him as a 'passenger', Nagra said: "I have no idea. Maybe she fancies James. Maybe if she fancied me she would have been distracted."