Amy Winehouse won a songwriting “Oscar” today - but arrived too late to pick up her gong.

The 24-year-old’s father Mitch had to go on stage to collect her Ivor Novello for Best Song Musically and Lyrically on his daughter’s behalf.

Judges of the prestigious Novello put the singer’s troubles behind her to award her the title for her self-penned track Love Is A Losing Game.

A message of thanks read out by Mitch Winehouse failed to mention the singer’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, who is in jail awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Mitch told the audience, which featured names like David Gilmour and Mark Ronson: “I don’t know what I’m doing up here. Amy unfortunately couldn’t make it but she’s getting better and she sends you all her love.”

He joked that he had trouble reading the speech because of his glasses. “I’ve had to borrow them off the ex-wife. I think she deliberately gave me the wrong strength,” he said.

Last year, Winehouse’s autobiographical track Rehab, which she wrote about her refusal to seek treatment for her drinking, won the Ivor Novello for Best Contemporary song. Mitch said: “She’s asked me to thank the Ivors for being the first to recognise her talent.”

The singer eventually turned up when the ceremony was more than halfway over. She was seen sitting by a table while draping her arms around her father, saying afterwards to journalists: “I’m fine. Really well.”

Asked why his daughter was late, Mitch said: “She’s always late. She was fashionably late,” and added that he did not mention her husband’s name because he “forgot”.

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