Former Strictly Come Dancing star Jacqui Smith has hit back at Craig Revel Horwood’s comments about her final performance on the show.

The former home secretary became the first contestant to be eliminated from this year’s series last weekend, after earning just two points from Craig for her Samba routine.

During his critiques, Craig told her look as though she was “limping about like you were lost at a party somewhere, drunk”, which Jacqui has now admitted was her low point of the series.

Speaking to Radio Times, she shot back: “I think the guy needs to get a bit more joy in his life and realise it’s quite possible for older women to dance and have fun without being drunk at a party.”

Jacqui also pointed out: “Actually Shirley [Ballas] and Mosti [Mabuse] were really lovely about the progress I’d made so that was really nice.

“I suppose the worst bit is, I think I would have got even better but I’m just sorry that I didn’t get the chance to show that to people.”

After falling at the bottom of the leaderboard for two weeks in a row, Jacqui and partner Anton Du Beke found themselves in the dance-off against Jamie Laing and Karen Hauer.

Ultimately, the judges chose to save Jamie and Karen, meaning Jacqui and Anton were the first pair to go home. 

The remaining 11 couples will be performing film-themed routines in Saturday night’s Movies Week special, with Nicola Adams and Katya Jones set to channel Grease, while Max George and Dianne Buswell undergo a Simpsons makeover.

See how they all get on in this week’s live show, airing at 7.25pm on BBC One.