Craig Revel Horwood has hit back at James Jordan after the former Strictly Come Dancing professional branded the judging panel “liars” over Dev Griffin’s elimination.
The judge has claimed James is “out for publicity” after the former pro dancer accused the panel of not judging the show fairly, resulting in Dev landing in the dance-off alongside Viscountess Emma Weymouth.
After the judges claimed they were “shocked” to see Dev in the bottom two, James claimed it was their marking that had led to the result, writing on Twitter: “HOW DARE THE JUDGES SAY THEY ARE TRULY SHOCKED!!!! LIARS!!! AND ITS YOUR FAULT! FACT!
“Just mark what you see and then let the public decide... just do your job!”
Responding to his comments in an interview with The Mirror, Craig said: “James Jordan is just out for publicity and if he was on the judging panel, I’m telling you, looking at it you have to judge on what you see.”
Dev’s exit from the competition sparked outrage among Strictly fans, who also claimed the judges had been inconsistently marking on Saturday night.
However, Craig was having none of the public’s criticism either.
“They can kick off as much as they like,” he said. “How much do they know about the Cha Cha Cha? Nothing darling... so they can kick off.”
He added: “Was Dev the right person to go on the night? Yes. Would he have been better in the future? Yes. Was he better in the past? Yes.
“He just got a dance he wasn’t particularly good at and he made a mistake.”
Dev’s exit is not the first time James has made his thoughts clear on this year’s Strictly.
Last week, he called for Craig to be axed from the judging panel, claiming “no-one would miss him”.
Meanwhile, Dev’s professional partner Dianne Buswell has called for trolls to stop bullying Head Judge Shirley Ballas online over the result.
After one fan alerted the dancer to the fact Shirley had been receiving abusive tweets and even death threats, Dianne tweeted: “Guys this is terrible you can not be bullying like this. It’s awful and really upsets me to hear this. It’s simply not ok and should never happen!”
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.40pm on BBC One.
