A British television programme has claimed that last year's Miss World competition was rigged to prevent Miss England from winning.

The claim has been strongly denied by the organisers of the competition that previously made international stars out
of Indians Reita Faria, Aishwarya Rai, Yukta Mookey and Priyanka Chopra.

Miss England Daniella Luan insists she only agreed to appear in last year's televised finals of the contest if the judges agreed in advance not to vote for her.

She told the Channel Four documentary Beauty Queens and Bloodshed how she hatched a secret deal with Miss World boss Julia Morley, a claim Morley has dismissed as untrue.

In last year's competition the title went to Miss Turkey after Luan did not make it to the final. As 22-year-old Luan explains she wanted to quit because of the controversy which had surrounded the competition over the decision to hold the event in Nigeria.

She was among a number of  contestants who wanted to boycott the competition when they learned that a Shariah court in northern Nigeria had condemned a woman to death by stoning for adultery.

Some 95 beauty queens from around the globe were forced to flee Nigeria after their presence sparked religious riots which left 250 dead and thousands of people injured. The contest subsequently moved to London.

Luan said she approached Morley days before the relocated event at the Alexandra Palace in London.

'I really did not want to win and I said this to Julia Morley,' Luan said, 'and she said "why don't you just come back and you wouldn't even have to be judged, we wouldn't judge you." So I agreed on that in the end.'

The programme voiceover claims: 'There would have been an outcry in the British press had they realised Miss England had struck this bizarre deal. Unknown to everyone other than the Miss World organisation, a key contestant took part in the final only as long as she was guaranteed not to be voted for.' 

'That was how much Miss England did not want to win Miss World.'

The claims have been rejected as untrue by Morley who said Luan was not a favourite with either the judges or he viewing public.

In a statement she said, 'The programme claims Miss England cut a deal to be excluded from the judging process. This is untrue. We have the judges' marking cards to prove it. Miss England did not make the top 20 even in the Internet vote.'

The documentary also claims Miss Turkey Azra Akin won because she was a Muslim.

'This is a disgraceful allegation, entirely untrue,' Morley said, 'and a slur not only on myself and last year's judging panel, but every judge who has ever been part of the Miss World finals. Every judge has expressed outrage at the comments made by this programme.'

Morley said she is now consulting lawyers over the 'extremely distressing' and damaging claims.

Besides Luan, the documentary features interviews with Miss Wales (Michelle Bush) and Miss Scotland (Paula Murphy), and uses video diary footage shot in Nigeria.

The programme also includes the first television interview with Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel whose newspaper article directly sparked the riots. The resulting outcry forced Daniel, 21, to flee the country. Islamic fundamentalists have issued a fatwa calling for her death and she has been forced to live as a refugee thousands of  miles away from her home and family.