Craig Revel Horwood defends decision to axe Strictly star Tom Dean after show is hit with fix claims

CRAIG Revel Horwood has defended his decision to axe Strictly star Tom Dean after the BBC show was hit with fix claims.

The first dance off this season saw Tom, 24, going up against pop star Toyah Wilcox, 66.

Tom, known for his swimming success at the Olympics, performed a Cha Cha to Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire with Nadiya Bychkova on Saturday night.

Despite scoring more points than Toyah and her partner Neil Jones, and landing higher on the leaderboard, they found themselves in the dance off.

In fact, Toyah was right at the bottom of the board, and viewers and stars alike were shocked when the judges opted to send Tom and Nadiya home.

Craig and Motsi Mabuse both opted to save Toyah while Anton Du Beke wanted to cut Tom.

Head judge Shirley Ballas had the deciding vote, and also chose to save Toyah.

Explaining her reasons, she said she agreed with the other judges that his timing was off and his footwork was out of step.

Craig was quizzed earlier today on their decision, and told ITV show Lorraine: “I didn’t want him to leave either.

“I know the next question on everyone’s lips is why did I choose Toyah over Tom?

“The reason was musicality. I have to choose not from my favourite but from a dance perspective.

“Of course I didn’t want to see Tom go I thought he had a shining future.”

A furious Nadiya later spoke out on Instagram and took a swipe at the show.

But fans spoke for her, calling the moment a ‘fix’ and arguing it was one of the most shock eliminations in the show’s history.

“Absolute fix. They obviously have some deal to give Neil more air time this year. Poor Tom. Not on at all,” wrote one fan.

“Tom has been robbed!! Toyah was by far the worse dancer!!! Absolute Fix” said a second.

A furious third wrote: “No…wrong wrong wrong…..getting fed up with this show now,think the judges must be being told who to save, Tom should have stayed over Torah 100%”