Alison Hammond backtracks as she addresses Strictly 'scandal' on ITV's This Morning

Alison Hammond seemed to backtrack on her comments about the Strictly Come Dancing "scandal" during a recent episode of This Morning.

The 49-year-old presenter, alongside co-host Dermot O'Leary, was discussing current news with contributors Tim Campbell and Vanessa Feltz when they touched upon the resurfaced video of ex-professional dancer James Jordan throwing a chair and threatening to "drag his partner across the floor".

Jordan claims the clip was "heavily edited for entertainment purposes" for the spin-off show It Takes Two. Alison, who participated in Strictly in 2014, initially referred to the controversy as a "scandal", stating: "This story is just not going away. We've done it literally every day this week. It's the Strictly scandal."

After a brief pause, she added: "Well i'm calling it the Strictly scandal. I'm bigging it up to be more of a drama than what it actually is but Strictly Come Dancing continues to be in the papers today."

Vanessa, a former Strictly contestant from 2013, mentioned that she and partner James were never left alone and always had a camera crew present during their training sessions.

However, Alison interjected, noting that during her stint on the show, she was left alone with professional dancer Aljaz Skorjanec twice a week, reports the Mirror.

Following reports of Graziano Di Prima's dismissal and allegations against Giovanni Pernice, it is rumoured that Strictly bosses are contemplating the introduction of chaperones for their stars. This comes in response to claims made against the two professional dancers.

On Tuesday's (July 16) episode of This Morning, Alison weighed in on the matter, stating: "I personally think its a good idea." Dermot then asked her: "Would you have wanted a chaperone when you did it? ".

To which she responded: "Obviously not, I don't want a chaperone. You just want to enjoy yourself. To be fair, out of the five days training in a week, you probably have cameras in the studio with you three of those days."

Dermot then questioned: "Did you feel safe and secure?"/ Alison reassured him: "Yeah, I had Aljaz and he was a brilliant teacher. I love working with him and I never had any issues whatsoever but there was always people around filming the rehearsals but there was about two days a week where I was alone with just Aljaz rehearsing but I personally wouldn't mind chaperones if it's going to safeguard people."

This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10am