Simon Cowell hit out at Danni Minogue following her allegations of the mind games he has employed against her one remaining act Matt Cardle.

Cowell spoke out after his unsympathetic attack on the ailing painter and decorator’s second performance on Saturday night which sparked a live row with his mentor Dannii Minogue.

Denying his game plan, Cowell said he was ‘absolutely not’ trying to push out the Essex lad in an apparent bid to pave the way for his boyband 1Direction.

‘There’s no point in sitting here if you are going to say everybody is fantastic’, he told Minogue.

The war or words came after Cowell told Cardle ‘I’m not a fan of the song’, after the 27-year-old sang Billy Joel’s Always A Woman.

Slamming the remarks, Minogue said: ‘I think that’s what we call tactics Mr Cowell.’

It would appear that Dannii have long suspected that her fellow judges have used mind tricks to influence the public vote, but this is the first time she have openly challenged another judge on this issue.