Cheryl Cole supports Diana's 'claw'

X Factor judge Cheryl Cole has instructed Diana Vickers to ignore criticism of her hand movements.

The Girls Aloud star offered advice to her act after thousands of viewers joined Facebook groups which campaign against the quirky gestures.

Vickers's style has also received a mixed response from the show's panel. Dannii Minogue compared the hand movements to a "puppet show" in the first live show of the series.

"It doesn't upset me. It's just people's opinion," Vickers told Heatworld. "People can think what they want. On Saturday night, I couldn't stop laughing about it. I was like: 'People are gonna look for the claw, Cheryl' and she said: 'Let the claw do what it wants to do.'

"I thought I'd change it a bit for Saturday night but it's just so natural. People would say: 'Why's she not moving?' and it's just something I do naturally."

The programme's vocal coach Yvie Burnett recently claimed that Vickers needs to "tone down" her unusual singing style if she wants to win the competition.