Lily Allen launched a scathing attack against Katie Hopkins after she said the singer looked "hideous" during her pregnancies and was only famous because of her dad.

The outspoken and acerbic commentator told heat magazine that she thought Allen was "kind of interesting" until she stepped out of the limelight to have children.

Hopkins said: "She was removing herself from the spotlight because she wanted to be a mother and that largely involved gaining two stone and looking pretty hideous. So then she decided that was boring and now she wasn't going to be a mother any more, she was going to be a singer. Like Peaches [Geldof], she is just famous for having a famous dad."

Allen - who gave birth in 2011 and 2013 - replied with venom as she set the facts straight about her time when pregnant, saying that initially having a miscarriage injected worry into her subsequent pregnancies.

She wrote: "I wasn't exercising because I didn't want to take any risks, and funnily enough, the survival of my children felt more important than being thin."

Allen added: "Oh, and whilst 'weighing me up', fat shaming, you were a stone out. I gained 3 not 2. And hey, look I'm on the cover of Elle this month!"

The singer since deleted her tweets, saying: "Sorry about that, but my babies are a touchy subject and I gave her exactly what she wanted by responding. I am now going to delete it all."