STANFORD-Le-Hope’s Rylan Clark has said he feels “guilty” after being voted through to the quarter-finals of X-Factor.

Speaking on the Xtra Factor, the “reaction show” which followed the results show on Sunday, the tearful 24-year-old admitted to Caroline Flack that it should have been him kicked off, not 16-year-old Ella Henderson, who had been a favourite to win the show.

Rylan seemingly sailed through to next week’s quarter-finals, while Ella and fellow favourite James Arthur were in the bottom two.

It was revealed that Ella had polled the least votes after judges failed to decide between them which act should go.

In response to Flack asking whether it should be him instead of Ella, Rylan said: “One hundred per cent. I feel so guilty. I can’t thank people enough for voting for me, but Ella shouldn’t have gone.”

Nicole Scherzinger, Rylan’s mentor, called Ella and James ending up in the bottom two as a “tragedy for the show”.

Gary Barlow, a stern critic of Rylan, said: “Every time Rylan goes through a good act will go home.”

Rylan’s vocal performances often leave a lot to be desired, but he has won plaudits for how entertaining he is.

James, who survived to sing in this weekend’s Motown and Abba special, moved to back Rylan. He said: “Everybody loves Rylan. He’s so entertaining. So why can’t he win it?”

If he does go onto win the competition, Rylan has revealed that he will spend the winnings on the house he shares with his mum Linda in Stanford.

He has offered to get her a new front door and deck the garden. His mum, who suffers from Crohn’s Disease, came to see him perform in the live shows for the first time two weeks ago.