Regan Gascoigne stressed that he “started from scratch” to make it to the final of “Dancing on Ice”.

The 26-year-old artist, who performs on the show alongside Karina Manta, denied claims that he and fellow finalists Kimberly Wyatt and Brendan Cole had an unfair advantage over the eliminated contestants because of their dance backgrounds. However, he does not believe this is the case as figure skating is “totally different”.

He said: “We know how this part works, but the steps and processes are different. You do something and they say, ‘Oh, that’s wrong.’ We all started from scratch to get here, so I think it’s different.”

Kimberly insisted they had to work just as hard as the other competitors, but acknowledged that her dance training had enabled her to try new things on the ice with her partner Mark Hanretty.

She said: “I’m really grateful for my dance background, absolutely, but with that comes the fact that we’re aiming for things that have never been done before.

“When I did the Invert Spinning Split, no one had done it before and if I didn’t have dance experience, I might not have had the courage to try it.

“You will never be able to convince everyone whether you deserve to be there or not.”

Her comments are similar to those of former Strictly Come Dancing pro Brendan, who believes their dancing backgrounds made this year’s series “really special”.

The dancer, whose partner is Vanessa Bauer, told MailOnline: “I think the fact that we have a dance background has only improved things on the ice.”

“The things we were able to do because of our background were really special. I loved the challenge. People will always complain. That’s the nature of humanity today. We’ll never change their minds.”