CELEBRITY Big Brother has found itself at the centre of a race row after Trisha Goddard accused one housemate of ‘Islamophobia'.
The legendary talk show host, 67, was quick to throw the term at Michael Fabricant as he gave a talk to their co-stars.
The former Conservative MP, 74, was addressing the housemates after being told to give a ‘speech' for the latest CBB task.
Michael began by announcing that he would scrapped the controversial HS2 high-speed train serviced that will eventually link Manchester and London.
He was then asked by EastEnders star Patsy Palmer whether the UK should ever rejoin the European Union.
Michael said he does not think it should before the subject moved on to immigration.
The former MP for Lichfield in Staffordshire told the housemates that he welcomes immigrants, providing they ‘don't expect people to change to their way of thinking'.
“Do not come to this country if your aim is to change everybody to your way of thinking,” Michael said.
Trisha immediately piped up and shouted: “Hang on!”
She continued: “Are you slipping into Islamophobia? Because you're going to have trouble. It’s getting dangerous.”
Michael refuted her claim, saying: “Who has mentioned Islam?”
As Daly Thompson got up to leave, Trisha said: “Yeah, it's getting dangerous.”
Michael continued: “I'm trying to explain this country has benefited from wave upon wave of immigration.”
He later received support from some of his fellow housemates, including Chris Hughes and Chesney Hawkes.
Chesney told Michael: “I don’t know why Trisha went into the Islamophobia thing. I thought that was a bit weird, because you weren't talking about that.”
Chris added: “You didn't say anything Islamophobic. You did good up there, well done.”
Michael was also seen in the Diary Room talking to Big Brother about the incident.
He said: “Trisha was jumping to conclusions about what I was getting at.
“She was stereotyping me as a Conservative and jumped to Islamophobic, which is definitely not me.
“It was a bit simplistic for her to jump to and I didn’t like it.”
