■ JACQUI SMITH IS THE FIRST SENT HOME IN STRICTLY
RUBBISH WEEKEND FOR SMITH AS SHE’S FIRST CELEB TO BE VOTED OFF STRICTLY
JACQUI SMITH chore wasn’t feeling great after becoming the first celebrity to leave the new series of Strictly Come Dancing last night.
The former home secretary was seen taking out the rubbish hours after being voted off the hit BBC1 show by all three judges, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Craig Revel Horwood.
The 57-year-old propped up the leaderboard after winning 25 points out of 60 across two weeks of lives shows and lost out in the dance-off to Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing, 31.
Before exiting, Smith said: ‘I had the greatest adventure.’ She said dance partner Anton Du Beke, 54, had been ‘fantastic and gorgeous to be with’.
Smith, who can now leave the show’s quarantine bubble, added: ‘To everybody on the programme... if ever we need Strictly, we need it now. I will be watching and supporting you.’
Du Beke said he ‘loved every second’ of being with Smith. ‘We have laughed, you have a shocking sense of humour. You are the best,’ he added. Meanwhile, it emerged there were ‘scenes of chaos’ on set as Boris Johnson’s lockdown press conference threatened to delay the start of Saturday night’s show.
‘Nobody knew what Boris and his team were doing, so everyone on the Strictly team was left hanging,’ an insider told the Mail on Sunday.
TV chiefs made the decision to move the Downing Street briefing to the BBC News channel so Strictly could start on time at 7.10pm.
But the chaos didn’t affect the show’s ratings, with an average audience of 10.6million tuning in to watch – up 1.3million from a week ago, reported the BBC.