Talk show host Trisha Goddard has warned former Tory MP Sir Michael Fabricant that his remarks about immigration were becoming “dangerous” as they pair clashed on Celebrity Big Brother.
Sir Michael was ordered by Big Brother on Friday night’s episode of the ITV reality programme to make a speech so the house could keep its electricity supply.
His decision to speak about immigration and against the UK rejoining the European Union was questioned by fellow housemate Goddard, 67.
The kettle watching everyone run towards it because they want to get away from Michael's speech like 👁️👄👁️ #CBBUK pic.twitter.com/7X58FhnujK
— Celebrity Big Brother UK (@bbuk) April 11, 2025
Sir Michael, 74, said: “My surname is French and I’m of Jewish extraction so I’m a real immigrant, and the point I’m making is Jewish people, when they usually come to this country, believe ‘do in Rome as the Romans do’, not come to this country if your aim is to change everybody to your way of thinking.
Goddard interrupted to ask: “Hang on, are you slipping into Islamophobia?”, adding she felt his speech was “getting dangerous”.
Sir Michael insisted he was talking generally about immigration, and later in the diary room accused Goddard of “stereotyping me”.
He told Big Brother: “Trisha was jumping to conclusions about what I was getting at.
“She was stereotyping me as a Conservative MP and then she suddenly jumped onto the subject of Islamophobia, which is not what I was getting at – I made it very clear.
“Certainly people afterwards were saying to me, ‘how did she leap to that particular conclusion?’
“I thought it was a bit simplistic for her to jump onto that, I didn’t like it.”
Sir Michael, who lost his Lichfield seat at the last general election, was up for elimination on Friday night’s episode, against Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke and Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd.
He lost to Rourke and Shepherd, who were saved by the public after a vote.
