I was on the Apprentice – I’m glad I got fired as I went on to bigger things and a surprising new role, says Tom Skinner

EATING roast dinners for breakfast, market trader Tom Skinner is no ordinary influencer.

But thousands of people still follow the gravelly voiced former Apprentice star for the early-morning pep talks he bangs out over brekkie from Dino’s cafe in Spitalfields Market, East London.

Peter Jordan

BBC

Instagram

The modern-day Del Boy, as he describes himself, puts his rising popularity down to the fact he is an influencer people can finally relate to.

And he is certainly on trend with his hearty breakfasts — which include curries and pie and mash — with The Sun reporting yesterday how we are ditching fancy avocados for old-school grub, such as fry-ups and black pudding, to start the day.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Tom, 32, says: “I see a lot of these influencers on holiday in Dubai, wearing £100k watches, driving Ferraris and eating in thousand-pound-a-night restaurants. That’s not real life.

“I’ve run big businesses, I’ve done well for myself, and I couldn’t afford to do that every day.

“With energy prices going up, the cost-of-living crisis, diesel going up, you just can’t do that.

‘Quite cheery’

“The only way you can get nice things is working hard, that’s true and simple.

“And if I can reflect that in my videos, giving people the encouragement to get up early and graft, give 100 per cent, then I’ll be well happy.”

Instagram

Instagram

Born in Romford, Essex, Tom has been trading on markets around Essex, London and Sussex since he was 16, a profession passed down from his dad.

He also owns furniture firm Bosh Beds, named after his catchphrase.

“I’ve always said Bosh since I was a kid, my dad said it. It’s just an East London/Essex thing,” he says.

“‘I’ve had a good day, bosh, smashed it’.

“When I was on The Apprentice they realised I said it quite a lot and it ended up being on every show.”

Tom was on the 2019 series of the BBC One show where Lord Sugar, a former market trader himself, reluctantly fired him after praising his loyalty and work ethic.

He says the series changed his life and gave him the opportunity to expand his bed business nationwide, as well as adding more market stalls.

But his reach has rocketed to new levels over the past 12 months due to his viral social media videos, which regularly attract more than 300,000 views.

They have also helped him amass a celebrity fan base that includes comic Jack Whitehall and DJ Roman Kemp, as well as childhood friend Rylan Clark.

And there have been lucrative brand endorsements with McDonald’s, EasyJet and Guinness and a book deal with HarperCollins.

It is in no small part down to the mammoth breakfasts he consumes at Dino’s while dishing out his morning battle cries.

Explaining how it all came about, Tom says: “Before we go to the market or ahead of doing deliveries, I’ve always done it, I say ‘Right, boys, today we’re gonna smash the day, give it 100 per cent’.

“Then we always had something mental for breakfast, like pie and mash, because I’m on my feet all day. A little bacon sandwich isn’t going to cut it.

“My mate, who works with me, said to me once, ‘I’ve got to film this, it’s quite cheery’, so he put it on Instagram and it went viral.

“I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of messages from people who said, ‘When you posted that, I was feeling down, times are tough, you gave me the motivation today to have a better day.

“I would have stayed in bed, but I didn’t’.

“So I’m going to keep doing them because they’re beneficial to some people.”

And how does he consume those XL meals when most people are still lying in bed?

“What I’m eating isn’t unhealthy, I’m just eating a proper meal,” he says.

“I’m having vegetables and mash potatoes and meat. It’s just what people are having for dinner, I just do it the other way round.

“If I ate what I ate and sat indoors every day, I would balloon up, but I need the calories to keep going.”

Tom married his partner Sinead last May and she is the mother of his two-year-old son Henry.

He says their relationship has not changed since he became famous and they still go to the local chippy for dates.

The only difference is “she now drives a nicer car” which he thinks she more than deserves for having to put up with his gruelling 3am starts and Friday pub nights.

He explains: “I love a pint of beer.

“I’m a great believer in if you work hard all week, Friday night is beer night. I’ve earned it.”

Tom went straight into full-time work after leaving school at 16.

His entrepreneurial skills were identified at a young age after he was expelled from his secondary school for trying to flog X-rated DVDs to fellow students.

He says: “They slipped out of my bag while I was leaning over to get some chips for lunch.

“My dad came in to defend me.

“He was annoyed as they were his DVDs, but I think he admired my bottle.

“I was allowed to take my GCSEs but I wasn’t allowed in school leading up to it.

“I have dyslexia so I was never the brightest, but I tried hard.”

Working hard is a trait Tom swears by, but he believes it is not something embraced by the youngsters of Gen Z.

He says: “When I was 15, I used to have two or three paper rounds, I set up market stalls, worked at a barber shop sweeping hair and doing washes at the weekends.

“I worked for my dad between all that, and I remember if you were working slow, you wouldn’t get paid.

“Now kids just don’t want to work hard.

“We’ve just become a softer generation, everyone seems to have become entitled now.

“Even when I got young kids in the market working with me, they’re like, ‘I’m getting tired now Tom, can I go and sit in the van?’.”

Thanks to his surging social media profile, Tom has been mooted as a potential signing for TV series including Strictly Come Dancing and I’m A Celebrity.

He is the bookies favourite to sign up for the latter.

He says: “I used to own a burger van in Romford market and I used to eat my own burgers, so if I can eat them, I can eat anything in the jungle no problem.”

And his love of boxing can help get him in shape for any scenes in the famous jungle shower.

He won his first fight last Saturday during a charity boxing event held in Purfleet, Essex.

Tom trained at his Bosh boxing gym in Brentwood, where he hopes to produce champions of the future.

And the market trader fancies becoming the next internet and reality star to make a name for himself in the ring, following in the footsteps of YouTuber Jake Paul and Love Islander Tommy Fury, who fought each other last month.

Asked how he thinks he would fare against them, he says: “I’ve been warned against it, only because I’d hurt them. Bosh!”