Strictly vs The Apprentice: Ed Balls challenges Lord Sugar to dance-off over ‘drunk giraffe’ jibe

Steady on! Strictly Come Dancing contestant Ed Balls has hit back at Lord Alan Sugar, after The Apprentice star made a derogatory comment about his dancing skills, and challenged him to a dance-off.

The straight-talking billionaire businessman, who regularly provides his own hilarious commentary on the BBC dancing show, suggested the former politician should quit the series following his performance on Saturday night.

Copyright [Getty/Gareth Cattermole/Jeff J. Mitchell]

He tweeted: “.@bbcstrictly Ed Balls dances with the grace of a drunk giraffe… give it up mate,” and later asked: “How the hell can Ed Balls will be voted in [Strictly Come Dancing] by the public.”

On Wednesday’s edition of spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, presenter Zoe Ball read Lord Sugar’s mean-spirited tweets to the Strictly contestant who previously invited the Hackney geezer to a dancing duel.

“Ooh Lord Sugar,” Zoe grimaced. “The thing I love about you Ed is that you didn’t take this lying down and you, in fact, challenged him – didn’t you?”

Copyright [Twitter/Lord_Sugar]

“If Lord Sugar thinks he can teach me to [dance] better, that’s fine,” Ed confidently responded. “Any night he wants to come on It Takes Two, I’ll challenge him!

“We can do a New York. We can do a Charleston spin! Get him on! If he can do better than me, I’ll back down. Until then, put your money where your mouth is!”

This is something that we never knew we needed until now, but unfortunately it’s also the one deal that Lord Sugar is refusing to shake on, as he claims that he “can’t dance.”

Copyright [Twitter/edballs]

Confirming his position, Lord Sugar responded on Twitter: “Ed I cant dance and mate neither can you. There is no point diverting the face you have as much rhythm as a 3 leg horse by challenging me (sic).”

The dancing dispute then escalated further, with Lord Sugar posting an edited photo of the pair in a dance-off, and Ed replying with our new favourite version of the infamous Dirty Dancing lift.

Meanwhile, Ed will return to Strictly on Saturday night having survived another week on the show after achieving his highest ever score for his performance of the Cha Cha, with professional partner Katya Jones, last weekend.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.55pm on BBC One.