SINGER Lynsey Brown today insisted the result of TV's Popstars: The Rivals was not a fix.

Controversy has raged following allegations that when viewers phoned up to vote for who they wanted to be in the final line-up of the girl band they either could not get through or were put through to register a vote for the wrong girl.

Lynsey said there had been similar accusations when she was the first girl to be voted off ITV1's popular Saturday show.

Lynsey, aged 20, from Little Hulton said: "I had people saying they tried to vote for me but didn't get text message replies or couldn't get through.

"But as with any technology, there's bound to be the odd glitch here and there. I certainly don't think there was any fixing of the votes."

Millions of viewers of the show were shocked that favourite Javine Hylton lost out on the final place in the girl band last Saturday. The surprise result led to allegations that the phone poll was rigged, with dozens of viewers complaining they were unable to register their vote for the 20-year-old Londoner.

Lynsey, who said she was not bitter at not getting into the new band Girls Aloud, said: "It may well have been that people thought Javine was the favourite and so would get thousands of votes anyway, so it was pointless voting for her."

Javine lost the final place to Sarah Harding, aged 21, from Stockport, during Saturday night's show.

London radio station Capital FM said more than 50 listeners had called in claiming they had been unable to vote for Javine.

ITV executives and the phone firm behind the poll, Red Fig, insisted there was no fault with the voting and stand by the result.

The battle for the Christmas number one, see tomorrow's 24/7 supplement.