Nikita Kuzmin is maintaining his defiant stance against accusations he and Ellie Simmonds performed an 'illegal' lift on Saturday night's Strictly Come Dancing.
The popular pro,. who partnered Tilly Ramsay last year and Paralympic swimming champion Ellie have proved to be a really popular pairing on Strictly's new series, with then yet to fall into the bottom two. On Saturday night, they and the rest of the remaining couples each performed a routine to a song from a famous BBC programme, in honour of the broadcaster's 100th birthday. Ellie and Nikita performed a paso doble to The Apprentice theme and, while they received largely positive feedback from the judges, notoriously hard to please panellist Craig Revel-Horwood and head judge Shirley Ballas took exception to one of the lifts.
Shirley told the couple; "I only have one little complaint. I do, I'm so sorry. I do have to deduct one point for an assisted lift at the beginning because that's not allowed. But other than that you were absolutely phenomenal." Being harsher on them, Craig branded the move "illegal."
