Britain's Eurovision entrants Scooch today took a swipe at Charlotte Church for her four-letter tirade criticising the band.

The pregnant Welsh songstress turned TV presenter used a video blog on her website to describe the band as "really s**t" and an "embarrassment".

But the winners of last week's Making Your Mind Up contest hit back today saying Church had the "mouth of a sewer" and was "attention seeking".

The four-piece band won the BBC competition to become the UK's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Helsinki in May, with Flying The Flag (For You).

But the win was marred by controversy when firstly fellow contestant Cyndi was wrongly told she had won, and later by claims that Scooch had duped viewers by hiding their backing singers.

Sticking her oar in, Church, who presents a Friday night Channel 4 talk show, said: "I watched a bit of Eurovision which was a load of b****cks.

"A load of absolute s**t, I've never seen s**t like it because Scooch are really s**t." She added: "I didn't watch all of it because I can't bear how much s**t it really is, but I just saw the last bit.

"It was down to Cyndi and Scooch and Cyndi had a really nice voice and it was a reasonable song so I thought they should have got through. But Scooch...it made every pore in my body itch with embarrassment."

Hitting back, Scooch band member Russ Spencer said: "What a pity that 'The Voice of an Angel' has acquired the mouth of a sewer."

And fellow singer David Ducasse added: "Charlotte's outburst seems to be a cheap, and attention seeking, reaction of a young lady who should know better."

The band, who did perform within the rules by having their backing singers off-stage during last week's show, also called for patriotic support for their entry.

Member Caroline Barnes said: "It is natural that not everybody is going to like our song. For some reason good fun pop music offends some people. But there is a polite way to express your opinion, something that Charlotte wasn't able to do."

Completing the band's defence, Natalie Powers said: "As a mother of a young child myself I find her behaviour and language quite unacceptable. What kind of role model is this for a mum-to-be?"