APPRENTICE star Lewis Ellis survived the axe in the boardroom AGAIN - and is now through to the final five.

Lord Sugar gave Lewis another dressing down as his team lost this week's task - but the Haslingden entrepreneur avoided the sack.

He now faces the reality show's dreaded interviews round - in which the remaining candidates face a forensic grilling by Lord Sugar's most trusted advisors.

Asked by Lord Sugar in the boardroom why he shouldn’t be fired, Lewis gave an impassioned speech.

He said: “Me as a person, I’m willing to put my everything into what I’m doing.

“I’ll never give up working, I won’t duck and dive I won’t avoid conflict. I’ll throw myself in there and I will take risks.

“And sometimes I may fail but at least I try and that’s one thing I can walk away from this knowing.

“As a business partner, I think that’s all you can ask for, someone who will give it 100 per cent.

“The fire in my belly will never go out and I’ll never back down and I’ll never pass blame.”

Last week Lewis dodged two bullets as Lord ASugar fired both Marianne Rawlins and Thomas Skinner.

Lewis, who last week volunteered to take the role of project manager for the task, led his team to failure and ended up back in the boardroom.

But the 28-year-old managed to cling on to his place in the show for another week, despite accepting responsibility for the task’s failure.