YouTuber Saffron Barker has explained why she wasn’t wearing a poppy on Strictly Come Dancing after coming under fire from viewers.
The 19-year-old social media star and her pro partner AJ Pritchard, 24, were slammed on Twitter over the weekend (02.11.19) after disgruntled Strictly fans noticed they didn’t appear to have poppies like their fellow dancers.
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Viewers rushed to Twitter to criticise the pair, branding them “disgusting” and insisting they were “appalled”.
One said: “AJ and Saffron not wearing a poppy between them, bloody disgusting! #StrictlyComeDancing.”
This is very disrespectful to our nation.
Another wrote: “Why are Saffron and AJ the only ones not wearing a poppy? #Strictly.”
A third tweeted: “@bbcstrictly I am appalled that everyone appearing on tonight’s show is wearing a poppy apart from AJ and Saffron. This is very disrespectful to our nation and the people who risked their lives for our country.”
Someone else simply commented: “#Saffron, no poppy?”
AJ and Saffron not wearing a poppy between them, bloody disgusting !#StrictlyComeDancing
— Jimin (@_jasmitchell) November 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/MissHannahDuncs/status/1190717704606507008
@bbcstrictly I am appalled that everyone appearing on tonight's show is wearing a poppy apart from AJ and Saffron. This is very disrespectful to our nation and the people who risked their lives for our country.
— claire whitlock (@clairee57415201) November 2, 2019
#saffron no poppy?
— Jody (@jody_pennington) November 2, 2019
Saffron has since offered an explanation and revealed that the decision wasn’t down to her or AJ.
One fan on Twitter asked: “Someone’s going to have to help me… [has] the BBC allowed saffron and AJ to get away with not wearing poppies? Not that I’m offended, it’s just very out of character for the BBC.”
Saffron replied and explained it was down to one particular move in their routine.
She told the user, with a smiley face emoji: “We weren’t allowed to when we were dancing [because of] our lift.”
We weren’t allowed to when we were dancing causeve our lift 🙂
— Saffron Barker (@SaffronBarker) November 3, 2019
On Saturday’s episode, Saffron said during a clip from training: “When it comes to the Salsa, I don’t really know much. You’ve just got to shake and move and I can’t naturally do that. So it’s going to take a lot of work to make it look easy.”
Head judge Shirley Ballas said of their performance afterwards, when host Tess Daly asked if Saffron and AJ were on form: “You had no fear when you went into some of the lifts, but I’ve got a feeling somebody is going to pull you up on your rotation.”
The pair ended up scoring a total of 27 from the judges.
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Sunday’s show saw Viscountess Emma Weymouth, 33, and pro Aljaž Skorjanec, 29, eliminated after losing in the dance-off to Mike Bushell, 53, and Katya Jones, 30.
Afterwards, fans on social media were up in arms, with some viewers on Twitter branding the decision a ‘fix’ and others even promising to ‘boycott’ the show.
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