THE family of X Factor hopeful James Arthur last night urged fans to keep voting for the Teesside singer after he narrowly escaped being voted out of the ITV show.

His mother, sisters and fans took to Twitter to urge everyone to vote for him next week to keep him out of the bottom two.

In one of the biggest shocks in the show’s history he ended up in the bottom two with fellow favourite Ella Henderson. They received two votes each from judges – and James narrowly won in the public vote, just staying in the show to reach the final five.

His mother, Shirley Ashworth, said last night on the social networking site Twitter that he had been “knocked sideways and is feeling it for Ella” after beating his friend in the public vote.

She said: “My emotions were all over and I was crying, screaming, on the floor, I couldn’t bear it.”

But she said her son had to “focus” on next week and never give up.

After the show on Sunday night, James said: “I’m lost for words. It feels horrible to progress at the expense of Ella – she should have been in the final. I thought I was a gonner when I went up against Ella.

“I probably need to work a little bit harder. I’m just going to have to come back better next week.”