Strictly’s Thomas Skinner leaves press event early

Emma SaundersCulture reporter, Elstree StudiosPA MediaSkinner is thought for signing off social media posts with “Bosh!”Strictly Come Dancing contestant Thomas Skinner has walked out of a press convention early forward of the present’s launch later this month.The previous Apprentice star and social media character left the Elstree Studios occasion after speaking to a bunch of journalists who had been interviewing him alongside fellow 2025 contestant, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank. Remaining journalists ready to interview Skinner, together with BBC Information, didn’t get an opportunity to talk to the entrepreneur.Skinner has change into a considerably divisive determine – his motivational movies have attracted tons of of 1000’s of followers since he left the Apprentice, however he has additionally attracted criticism in latest months. Some have taken difficulty with Skinner’s latest social media posts together with one with a photograph of himself assembly US Vice President JD Vance, and one other of him carrying a Make America Nice once more cap. However a lot of his followers reward Skinner for what he describes as “standing up for conventional, hard-working, household values”, his patriotism, and campaigning on points corresponding to knife crime.Skinner and different Strictly contestants had been collaborating in a sequence of roundtable interviews, the place celebrities meet with teams journalists for a couple of minutes at a time, in a method just like speed-dating, to take questions.It is unclear why Skinner made a fast exit earlier than the session had ended, when he had not but accomplished the complete press circuit.Representatives for Skinner and Strictly Come Dancing have been contacted for remark.On Monday, Skinner took to X to had the “finest day” after his first full day of rehearsals.One of many journalists on the desk Skinner left informed the BBC that the businessman had been advantageous when a fellow journalist requested him if JD Vance can be coming to look at him, jokingly responding that he thought the Vice President had extra urgent issues to do.All of the contestants had been interviewed in pairs or threes, excluding former Chelsea footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who was interviewed solo as soon as Skinner had departed.PA MediaJimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had been doing interviews alongside SkinnerSkinner first hit TV screens on The Apprentice in 2019, and has since appeared on reveals together with 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Wheel, Michael McIntyre’s Large Present, Good Morning Britain and Faking It, in addition to Movie star Masterchef.He’s additionally identified for his social media movies which encourage folks to assume positively, runs plenty of small companies, together with a health club, and is an everyday on TalkSport Radio.In response to criticism from some quarters, Skinner informed The Each day Mail final month: “I am not proper wing.”Individuals are like sheep and simply began saying it as a result of I received invited to go to BBQ with JD Vance and I posted an image with him.”Who’s gonna flip down a possibility to fulfill the second strongest man on the earth?”‘Past the pale’Earlier on Tuesday, BBC director-general Tim Davie defended the choice to solid former Skinner in Strictly, which begins later this month.Talking to MPs from the Tradition, Media and Sport committee, Davie mentioned: “That was not my choice, that was the manufacturing workforce on the lookout for these folks … who wish to do Strictly, and people folks they thought can be attention-grabbing to the viewers.”Davie added: “Clearly, we would not take anybody whose views are simply past the pale, or we might see as utterly unacceptable or not appropriate, racist views, all these issues, we would not settle for them.”However that is not the case right here, from what I do know, I am not an skilled on the person, per se.”Earlier this week, the BBC introduced premium-rate telephone voting on Strictly would finish, with viewers invited solely to solid their votes for contestants on-line.