Strictly Come Dancing has been hit with a voting drama after staff at Emma Weymouth's stately home Longleat have been told they can claim back expenses from voting for her and Aljaž Škorjanec.
A post urging staff to vote was posted onto Facebook and dated on 18 October which explained they could get the money back for calling to vote, according to The Sun.
The staff at Longleat are employed by the Marquess of Bath who is the father of Emma's husband the Viscount Weymouth Ceawlin Thynn.
Darren Beasley, who is head of animal operations at Longleat, told staff on the social media site: " I'm authorised to get your calls paid for you."
“Tell your partners, mums, dads, cousins, granny and the dog if he can dial that number for Lady Emma and Aljaz.
"Phoning this week will be free because Longleat will pay. Let’s keep them in for another week x. Happy voting.”
Mirror Online have contacted a representative for Emma and the BBC for comment.
On Thursday a spokesperson at the BBC told The Sun they take "fairness on Strictly Come Dancing extremely seriously".
"Action was taken as soon as this issue was brought to BBC Studios’ attention. This has had no impact on the public vote."
Longleat said: "It was not our policy or practice to reimburse people for votes. The message was only sent to 109 people.
"No one sought payment from Longleat or any team member, so no one acted on the message and it had no effect on the actual votes."
It comes after Viscount Weymouth reportedly erupted in fury backstage after Emma found herself in the bottom two.
Reports suggested he had to be "calmed down" backstage as his wife came dangerously close to being the third person to be voted out of the competition.
However, Emma had a much better time tonight the the judges gave her and partner Aljaz a massive 36 points.
They got four nines from the judges and joined Karim and Amy in joint second place on this week's leader board.
Saffron Barker and AJ Pritchard came in top with 38 points.
