YOU’RE HIRED…Leah Totton has been crowned 2013 Apprentice winner

NORTHERN Ireland doctor Leah Totton has won The Apprentice.

And Lord Sugar told her: “You are going to be my business partner.”

The 24-year-old from beat off close rival Luis Zissiman to take the title and a £250,000 investment in her cosmetic business NIKS.

After being crowned the champion, Leah, from Derry said: “I really can’t believe I have got this far.

“I can’t believe I have won and I am going to be Lord Sugar’s business partner.

“And I won’t let him down.”

But it was touch and go for the doctor with Lord Sugar deliberating on whether the cosmetic business was too much of a risk for him to go into.

“Do I need this aggro at 66-years-old? That’s the question that I have to ask myself.”

What went against Luisa Zissiman, who wanted to set up her Baker’s Toolkit company, was the fact that she wasn’t prepared to relinquish her outside business interest.

In the end, Lord Sugar believed Leah’s business, with a turnover of £8 million after five years through nine cosmetic clinics was a risk worth taken.

Leah left The Apprentice studio and drove off in Lord Sugar’s Rolls Royce with its AMS 1 personalised number plates.