POTENTIAL apprentice Stuart Baggs has narrowly scraped through a tense boardroom showdown with Lord Alan Sugar after being told he was "a loose cannon".

Stuart found himself in the bottom three after losing in this week's tourism task – to sell London tour bus experiences to tourists.

The 21 year old took on the responsibility of team leader for Team Apollo, which consisted of Stella and Liz, in week ten of the competition. 

The team decided on a cockney experience which included tasting jellied eels and meeting the Pearly Kings and Queens.

Deciding on a ticket price Stuart came up with £35 and explained: "I don't think Lord Sugar is going to shout at us for charging to much is he? – I think he'll be impressed."

However the team quickly found they had priced themselves out of the market and an opportunity for their tour tickets to be sold in the London Visitor Centre was lost as a result. The centre's manager exclaimed: "Do they get to keep the bus afterwards? That's quite an ambitious price."

With Stella assigned to tour guide Stuart and Liz set about touting for business with Stuart concluding: "Tourists are essentially juicy money bags aren't they."

Stuart's sales strategy came under fire when he decided that it was a good idea to try and pitch outside the London Visitor Centre where he had earlier lost the deal.

Declaring that he was doing nothing wrong Stuart said: "No one can stop us standing on the pavement and giving these flyers out – it's a free country."

When he was approached by the centre manager and told to leave Stuart cheekily replied: "Sorry I thought this pavement was the property of City of Westminster? You own this pavement? Sorry I'm trying to avoid sounding facetious but maybe the fair thing to do would be to call the police or something."

Admitting defeat Stuart moved onto Trafalgar Square in the hunt for more customers where he proceeded to interrupt his rival team in the middle of their sales pitch calling them "idiots" and "amateurs".

Angering rival colleague Chris the two squared up to one another and exchanged a number of choice words which resulted in Stuart saying to Chris: "Go on hit me then. You mouth off but why don't you back it up with substance. It seems a bit weak if you have to swear a lot. It doesn't seem very professional."

When Lord Sugar brought up the boys "turf wars" in the boardroom both men played down the situation with Chris describing the exchange of words as "handbags at dawn".

Despite taking more than £800 in ticket sales Stuart's team were beaten and all three were left to face Lord Sugar in the final boardroom battle.

Team mate Stella commented: "The writings on the wall for Stuart. He's fully aware that he's totally screwed up."

Aides to Lord Sugar Nick Hewer and Karen Brady criticised Stuart for not having a proper pricing strategy and the fact that he wouldn't acknowledge that he didn't sell as many tickets as team mate Liz.

Fighting for his place in the competition Stuart told Lord Sugar: "I will make you so proud of me. I want you to wake up in the morning and check the bank balance and think 'he has made me millions'. I wont be happy with myself unless

I've done that for you."

Responding Lord Sugar said: "That is such an outrageous promise that you can't guarantee."

Determined to prove himself to Lord Sugar Stuart continued: "I'm not a one trick pony, I'm not a ten trick pony. I've got a field of ponies waiting to literally run towards this."

An amused Lord Sugar warned Stuart that one day he would be embarrassed by his outpouring. He said: "I promise you you'll sit back and you will look maybe at this particular moment and you will cringe yourself. You certainly believe in yourself but the fact of the matter is it wasn't so long ago you believed in the tooth fairy also."

Summing up the telecoms entrepreneur Lord Sugar described him as a "loose cannon" and pondered: "Have I been a businessman or a baby sitter. I'm not sure if it's time for beddy-byes as far as I'm concerned. Nevertheless you've given me a very good plea today. You've got a lot of faults but maybe that's not a bad thing they could be knocked out of you."

Narrowly clinging on to his place Lord Sugar decided to fire Liz from the competition instead and Stuart made it through to the next task which will see the contestants face tough one to one interviews.

The Apprentice continues next Wednesday, December 15, on BBC One at 9pm.