Alesha Dixon’s dig at Simon Cowell as she complains he’s ‘always late’ for BGT

Alesha Dixon has taken a pop at Simon Cowell – saying he is always late for Britain’s Got Talent shows and keeps the judges waiting.

It comes after Ant and Dec said they nearly quit because of his terrible time-keeping last week.

She says: “Normally it’s Simon holding us all up and we’re usually waiting around for him but when it comes to the live shows of course, he can’t be late, so we really enjoy those because Simon has to be on time.”

She also said how it was difficult to keep David Walliams in check now Cowell was not on the show because of his broken back.

“With Simon no longer taking part there is no one to keep David in check!” she added.

“He does his thing, we love it. We love him when he goes a little bit edgy and disrupts things by being his usual crazy self.

“That’s the beauty of David! That’s what we encourage, and I think Simon secretly loves it too.

“But all of us want to make sure that we all do a great job and that when Simon watches the show back, he’s really happy and really proud of the show.”

She also talked about reuniting with Ashley Banjo who is replacing Cowell.

“I love Diversity,” Alesha gushed, “I feel like an honoury member having now performed with them, having now hosted one of their shows and having worked with Ashley on Dance, Dance, Dance and with Jordan on The Greatest Dancer.

“I’ve got a lot of love of respect for them and Ashley is the perfect judge and is the perfect person to step in for Simon!

“He knows his stuff and always delivers. We always have lots of laughs together.”

*Britain’s Got Talent is on Saturday on ITV1 at 8pm.