The number of complaints to Ofcom from disgruntled viewers of The X Factor claiming they were unable to vote for their favourite contestant during Saturday's final has rocketed from 80 yesterday to more than 1,500 this afternoon.

It is understood that the vast majority of the complainants were from viewers of the ITV1 show who said they were unable to cast a vote for Rhydian Roberts, the favourite, who came second to Leon Jackson in a surprise result.

An Ofcom spokeswoman today confirmed the figure of 700 complaints, which is expected to rise even further throughout the day.
ITV was unable to confirm the number of complaints it had itself received at the time of publication.

"I must have tried calling in about 50 to 100 times by hitting the redial button to vote for Rhydian, but I didn't get through once," wrote one viewer on The X Factor website's talk board.
Radio stations in Rhydian's native Wales said they had been inundated with calls from angry fans.

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said the regulator would look into the complaints but declined to give a time frame for the investigation.
The show's producer, TalkbackThames, yesterday admitted that said some Virgin Media cable TV customers had experienced problems getting through because of high call volumes.