For 16 years The X Factor crowned Britain's biggest new singing stars, promising them fame and riches beyond their wildest dreams. But for many their moment in the limelight was brief. Today former contestants are queuing up to hit out against the British music industry for 'exploiting' and treating them like 'cattle' since their overnight rise to fame. Rebecca Ferguson has called for an urgent parliamentary inquiry to help protect young and emerging artists and an independent tribunal to hold those responsible for poor treatment within the industry to account. Her fellow contestant Cher Lloyd, 27, and double act Jedward, both 29, who appeared on the show the previous year, have now also hit out at the industry and claimed they were also poorly treated.