Little Mix appear to have taken a less-than-subtle dig at their former mentor Simon Cowell in the lyrics to their new track, Not A Pop Song.

The former X Factor winners will unveil the latest cut from their upcoming sixth album Confetti on Friday, but it’s been noted that the lyrics seem to be making a dig at the music and TV mogul, who was formerly their label boss.

According to Metro, the band can be heard singing: “I don’t do what Simon says, get the message cuz it’s read, that’s just life it never plays fair… said to follow any dream, be a puppet on a string, works for you but that isn’t me.”

The line “I don’t do what Simon says” was previously tweeted by chart-topping singer MNEK, who co-wrote the track, though he has since deleted his post.

The band were signed to Simon’s former record label for seven years after winning The X Factor, but they parted ways suddenly just days before the release of the group’s 2018 album, LM5.

Simon later claimed in an interview the departure was due to a disagreement over the album’s lead single, Woman Like Me, which he said the band “didn’t want to record” at all.

Band member Jesy Nelson later clarified: “So this is what happened. We so wanted to write a song like Strip and were so passionate about releasing it as our first single.

“We’d co-directed the video, we’d done the photoshoot, so we were excited. Obviously when Woman Like Me was put on the table, in our heads Strip was going to be the first single, and [Woman Like Me] didn’t feel exactly like what we’d sing about.

“So we went in, tweaked the lyrics, changed the production, and got Nicki [Minaj] on it, which was an absolute dream.”

She added: “We didn’t despise it at all. It’s a banger.”

Not A Pop Song will feature on Little Mix’s forthcoming album, Confetti, which is released on 6 November.