Strictly contestant claims BBC fixed vote to see him eliminated | UK news
Thomas Skinner has claimed he received a message suggesting the BBC had rigged the vote to eliminate him from Strictly Come Dancing.
The businessman claimed on social media that on the night he left the contest he was sent “an anonymous email purporting to be from a BBC executive containing statistics” showing that he had “received far more votes than it appeared”.
Skinner, a former Apprentice contestant, became the first celebrity contestant to be voted out of this year’s series in September.
Saturday night will culminate with Karen Carney, Amber Davies and George Clarke competing to take home the trophy.
Skinner described himself as “non-political” despite appearing to be right-wing by wearing a Maga (Make America Great Again) baseball cap and posing for a photo with US vice president J.D. Vance.
He added that the email also claimed the BBC was “angry” and “tense” about its meeting with Vance. The company denied the allegations.
A BBC spokesman said on Saturday: “Public voting for Strictly Come Dancing is independently audited and verified each week to ensure complete accuracy.
“Any claims to the contrary are completely unfounded. Unfortunately, despite requests, Mr Skinner has not yet shared the email he refers to with anyone from the BBC so we are unable to comment on this.”
This comes after newspaper reports said the social media personality was planning to sue the BBC over her early elimination from the programme.
The Guardian understands that the BBC is unaware of any legal complaints in the matter.
PromoVeritas, the company that independently verifies strictly public voting, said: “All votes are independently and comprehensively verified by two auditors.
“We can confirm that all votes received have been verified. This has been the case every week and we have not reported any issues with the public vote or how it was represented in the final results.”
Skinner, 34, also claimed the email purportedly from the BBC executive had been “independently verified” as authentic. However, it is not clear how he does this.
He added that there were “little things” that added to the feeling of “how unfair everything is”, such as the welcome gift to the show being the only gift that was “apparently stolen”.
In response, a BBC spokesperson said: “The Strictly Come Dancing production team categorically did not give any cast members a ‘welcome gift’.”
Skinner announced he will not be taking part in Saturday’s Strictly final, when former contestants return.
Returns to BBC on Celebrity Apprentice on 29 and 30 December, According to information obtained by the Guardian, he was also present at the BBC’s press launch of the program last month.
