After weeks of being kept on a tight leash by the X Factor PR team, boy band Stereo Kicks have suddenly found themselves free to speak their minds in the wake of their elimination from the show.

And it was tabloid columnist and professional troll Katie Hopkins who found herself on the receiving end of a sweet burn after attempting to put them down via Twitter.

She had written: "Stereos**ts wishing they had spent a bit of time at school instead of practising with a hairbrush in the mirror. Burger King kick. NEET kick"

But the boy band's Tom Mann, 21, wasn't going to take that lying down and responded: "@KTHopkins I got 3 A*s and a B at A Level. You nob. - Tom"

.@KTHopkins I got 3 A*s and a B at A Level. You nob. - Tom

— Stereo Kicks (@StereoKicks) December 1, 2014

Despite some debate over the correct spelling of "nob/knob", the internet has generally declared the score Stereo Kicks 1 - Katie Hopkins 0.

And Tom told Yahoo! Celebrity that the response had been a long time coming.

"She's sent quite a few mean tweets and the reply was not out of bitterness on our part. There's nothing constructive, it's needless.

"Usually we would leave that sort of stuff but if she’s going to do it we'll come back having a bit of a laugh."

Bandmate James Graham added: "She’s been doing it every week and it's just like 'shut up'.

And Tom said: "Yeah, she's a k**b."

"We despise her," James stated.

Hopkins, who first rose to attention on The Apprentice, has made a career out of being mean about celebs such as Lily Allen and the late Peaches Geldof.

She famously declared that she judges her children's classmates if they are named after places - apparently forgetting that she has a daughter called India.

Tom also revealed that the boys are planning to stay together in a bid to secure a record deal.

"When you think, we've been an eight piece throughout the competition we've still lasted all the time that we have – fifth place is an achievement.

"A lot of people have voted for us and invested in us as an eight piece so we'll stay together. In the short term we'll do a few gigs, go home for Christmas, do the tour, which we can't wait for, and then hopefully - we don't want to rush anything - we want to make some music."

We think it's safe to assume that Hopkins won't be on the guest list.