Stevenage businessman Scott Saunders managed to sneak through to the next round of The Apprentice despite heading up the losing team in last night’s BBC One show.

The 27-year-old dog lover put himself forward as project manager for the selling task at the London Pet Show after being moved from winning team Versatile.

Scott, a former pupil of Fearnhill School in Letchworth and who also lived in Ickleford, chose cat-themed products but was left scratching his head after the team made nearly £1,000 less than the rival team led by David Stevenson.

So Scott faced Lord Sugar in the boardroom but survived along with Selena Waterman Smith, with Ruth Whiteley fired after failing to make a sale.

Speaking to Scott before turning to Ruth, Lord Sugar said: “You needed to be a bit more ruthless in choosing your high end sales division, and I’m not using that as a pun because maybe less Ruth would have been the best thing. So Ruth, you’re fired.”

After the show, in which the entrepreneur was praised by fellow team members for his managerial style, Scott tweeted: “Just so everyone knows, there was more to the indecisive decisions than meets the eye!”