Karren Brady appointed as The Apprentice's new Margaret

Businesswoman Karren Brady is to become one of Alan Sugar's advisors on reality television show The Apprentice.

The chief executive of Birmingham City Football Club will replace Margaret Mountford who quit after the last series of the BBC programme to study a PhD in ancient literature. 

Brady will join Nick Hewer as the so-called "eyes and ears" of the entrepreneur who recently became known as Lord Sugar after receiving a peerage from Gordon Brown.

It is believed that the 'First Lady of of Football', who appeared in a celebrity Comic Relief edition of The Apprentice, beat off competition for the role from Michelle Mone, the entrepreneur behind bra company Ultimo and Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com

Brady has previously featured in The Apprentice interviewing the candidates vying for a position with the Amstrad founder. Last year, she offered a job to Claire Young, the show's runner-up.  

The Apprentice has been subject to controversy over recent months with Conservative politicians calling for Sugar to quit working for the BBC following his peerage and appointment as the prime minister's enterprise tsar. The broadcaster has stood by the entrepreneur but the BBC Trust called for the rescheduling of the programme should a general election be called in May 2010 when the next series of The Apprentice is due to air.