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Katie Hopkins’s “Should I stay or should I go?” dilemma brought a record audience to The Apprentice as 6.9 million viewers watched her walk out.

The acid-tongued brands consultant passed up the chance of a £100,000 job with Sir Alan Sugar after deciding that she could not uproot her two children.

Ms Hopkins heads the Met Office climate change consultancy team in Exeter, which advises businesses on adapting to environmental change. The Met Office said that she was expected back at work.

The fame-hungry competitor may find a media career more tempting. Yesterday she pocketed £65,000 in newspaper and magazine fees for her exclusive story and she has received further media offers. Sir Alan’s refusal to allow Ms Hopkins, 31, time to consider was criticised.

In a guest blog for the Times Online Alpha Mummy column, the novelist Jenny Colgan wrote: “For nine weeks, right, we’ve had to listen to Sir Alan Sugar intoning, ‘This isn’t a game show. This is a job interview’.

“Uh, siralun, you’re actually not allowed to allocate jobs based on people’s access to childcare anymore. Since, like, 1976” – when the Sex Discrimination Act came into force.

The Equal Opportunities Commission said: “It is unlawful to discriminate over domestic arrangements for the purposes of allocating a job.” Sugar blows whistle, page 52

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