Simon Cowell - I did it for Luis

[Tiara]

The fallout from Saturday’s tense and emotional X Factor has already begun. No sooner were this week’s fallen act The Conway Sisters waving goodbye to their weekly 15 minutes of fame, than they were giving a news conference – and attacking their former mentor Simon Cowell for giving them the boot.

Marie – aka Lead Singer Conway - told the press that it was "plain to be seen" that Simon hadn’t given them as much support as he could have. "He didn't really know what to do with us as a band. He was completely lost. It was a relief to him that we decided to choose our own songs,” she sniped – before adding: "Obviously, we're a bit upset, but we felt it was our week to go. We've been in the bottom two for the past few weeks and we weren't getting a huge amount of support from our mentor.” Miaow!

Not that Marie’s comments will bother Teflon Cowell very much – because X Factor insiders say that Simon stands by his decision to kick the Irish lasses off the show. And what’s more, say the sources, he did it to save poor embattled Louis Walsh the agony of having to making the final call as to whether The Conways or Chico stayed.

“Voting his own act off was the lesser of two evils and what Simon felt was best for the show,” the insider tells the Daily Star. “He knew Louis would have felt duty bound to save fellow Irish folk The Conways – causing him to come into conflict with Chico’s mentor Sharon. Simon won’t be losing any sleep over it. He did what he felt was for the best.” Bless. But could this mean that Louis will now be returning the favour – and voting to keep Simon’s only act Journey South in the competition? Watch this space…