Ex-Apprentice fired up for councillor role

Gregory Ebbs described himself as a military history buff

Two years after being fired from The Apprentice, a 25-year-old military history enthusiast has started a new role as a Shropshire councillor.

Gregory Ebbs won a seat on Shropshire Council as a Liberal Democrat in May's election by nine votes and said afterwards: "It was on a knife-edge."

Lord Sugar showed him the door in week three of the BBC show, after a bad cartoon led to his team losing the task, and he said he feared the people of Whitchurch might cast him out too.

"I didn't sleep the night before and was sweating like mad," he said.

In the end he received 392 votes out of a total of 1,039, narrowly beating a Reform UK candidate.

The Lib Dems swept to power on Shropshire Council in the elections, replacing a Conservative administration which had run the unitary authority since it was created in 2009.

Mr Ebbs said his aim was to build on his vote in future elections and added it was the aim of the Lib Dems to prove they could "get things done" and sort out a range of issues.

Away from politics, he runs an antique shop in Whitchurch and also tours schools, giving talks with a collection of historical artefacts which he said he started acquiring as a boy.

He has lived in Wales, Poland, Thailand and Malta, where he said he got his nickname "the cannon man" because he was employed as a cannon-firer.

Mr Ebbs returned to the UK during the coronavirus pandemic and was elected to Whitchurch Town Council.

He remains one of the youngest councillors in the county.

When he appeared on series 17 of The Apprentice, he said he believed his best qualities were thinking outside the box and his "diverse experiences in different fields".

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.