Joseph and Du Beke voted off

Ed Balls has survived to dance another week as Birds Of A Feather star Lesley Joseph became the fifth celebrity to be voted off Strictly Come Dancing.

The former shadow chancellor came close to dropping his professional partner Katya Jones during a lift as they performed an American Smooth on Saturday’s show.

The duo were placed at the bottom of the judges’ leaderboard but it was Joseph who was eliminated after all four judges voted to save model Daisy Lowe in the dance-off last night.

Joseph paid tribute to her professional partner Anton Du Beke after she received the news, saying: “Working with him (Anton) has been an absolute joy and we’ve laughed a lot.

“And, yeah, it’s been just a lovely, lovely, lovely journey and it’s come to an end and that’s absolutely fine. We’ve loved it.”

The professional also spoke of his affection for his partner, telling Joseph: “I would just like to say thank you very much, you enriched my whole Strictly experience this year.

“Dancing with you has been an absolute joy. You pushed me, I don’t know about me pushing you, you pushed me to try and be more creative and make the numbers better and that’s just down to you and you’re just an absolute joy..”

The duo had scored 24 points from the judges for their Tango to Whatever Lola Wants by Gotan Project, while Lowe and her partner Aljaz Skorjanec were in joint fourth place with 32 points for their Charleston to Happy Feet by Manhattan Rhythm Kings.

The judges all opted to save Lowe.

The remaining 10 couples will take to the dancefloor next week for a Fright Night Halloween on Saturday at 6.45pm.

“It’s been just a lovely, lovely, lovely journey”