Apprentice candidate Bianca Miller lost out to Australian entrepreneur Mark Wright in the final of the show last night.

As the winner, Mr Wright will get a £250,000 investment from Lord Alan Sugar into his digital marketing and search engine optimisation business.

Miss Miller, from Croydon, is proposing to launch a range of tights to match to various different skin tones.

On the BBC series she had come under fire for pricing her tights at £20 a pair, and has now revealed she has since dropped the price to £7.99 to give the brand broader appeal.

The 25-year-old said of her business: “Mark could help me with my SEO – although I think he might be a bit too expensive for me.”

And, talking about losing out to him, she said: “If you lose to someone who isn’t very good it’s upsetting, but Mark is very credible.

“I was happy to go up against him and if I was going to lose, to lose to him was the best I could hope for, really.”

Your Local Guardian: Why The Apprentice winner's family are 'confused'

The winner Mr Wright, originally from Australia, explained why he had been keen to start a business in the UK.

He said: “London particularly is a land of opportunity for young people to start businesses.

“You can start a business here from your kitchen bench and turn over a million quid – what other place in the world can you do that?

“In Australia the population’s not big enough and the dollar’s not strong enough.”

And when asked what his family and friends back home thought, he said: “I think they’re confused. "They’re like, ‘First of all, what’s The Apprentice? Second of all, what are you doing, we thought you went backpacking and now you’re on a TV programme with a tycoon starting a business?’ “It’s a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but I’m in it for the long haul.”

The final saw previous candidates from the series invited back to help Mr Wright and Miss Miller in their pitches to the relevant industries to try to sell their business plans.

Fans of the series were not surprised to see Mark’s nemesis Daniel Lassman join Bianca’s team, but he said there was some truth in the pub quiz company owner’s claim that their rivalry had spurred him on to success.

Talking about his clashes with Mr Lassman, the 25-year-old said: “That’s why you see a lot of businesses excel when they get a competitor with a good product who pushes them in competition.

“Daniel comes from a footballing sales background and so do I.

"You put two of those people in a competition and it becomes a nightmare for anyone else around it. "In the tasks we hated each other, but in the house we got on fine.”