Celebrity Big Brother 2016: TV watchdog Ofcom to investigate complaints over 'homophobic comments'

It's only day two in the Celebrity Big Brother house and the show is already facing criticism, after TV watchdog Ofcom received 165 complaints about comments made by Winston McKenzie on the launch show. In his entry video, the London Mayoral candidate said he would "cope with a homosexual in the house" by "standing against a brick wall all the time".

The English Democrat was slammed for the "grotesque" and "homophobic" remark and was booed by the crowd as he entered the house joining 15 other contestants for the reality TV show, where they will be filmed 24/7 for the next five weeks.

While his comments provoked outrage on social media, appearing on This Morning, Bit on the Side presenter Rylan Clark-Neal said he intended to challenge Winston for his comments when he appears on the spin-off show.

"With the profile VTs, I get that you want to be a little controversial, but to say something like that, if you look at homophobia, it's on the same level as racism," he said. "If someone said something like that about a black person or a white person, there would have been an uproar."

While Channel 5 has declined to comment on the matter, Ofcom said it would assess the complaints before deciding whether to investigate further. Last year's series saw former Coronation Street actor Ken Morley thrown off the show for using racist and sexist language.

Meanwhile, despite public excitement at this year's line-up the launch night show​ attracted its lowest January viewers to date. The flagship Channel 5 reality show was seen by an average overnight audience of 2.67 million at 9pm. The figure is down by around 400,000 from last winter's series, but up by 400k from the summer series.

With 16 celebrities, boasting varying degrees of fame, the line-up features a mix of US and British faces including David Gest and Kim Kardashian's BFF Jonathon Cheban. Other reality stars include Gemma Collins from The Only Way Is Essex and Strictly Come Dancing's Kristina Rihanoff, Tiffany Pollard, Geordie Shore's Scotty T, Ex On The Beach's Megan McKenna and former X Factor finalist Christopher Maloney.

From the acting world are John Partridge, who played Christian Clark on EastEnders, ex-Hollyoaks actress Stephanie Davis and Danniella Westbrook, who played Samantha Mitchell.

Westbrook was reported by the Daily Star to be receiving £200,000 to appear on CBB. The actress who has had a troubled past opened up about her past struggles with drug addiction, as she sensationally admitted to housemates Darren Day and John Partridge that she first started taking cocaine when she was 14.

"I started when I was 14, the first thing I ever done was coke," she said. Stage star Darren in turn, revealed that he first started taking cocaine when he was 28 years old.

Danniella, who will be seeing a psychiatrist for her bipolar and borderline personality disorders while staying in the CBB house, added that she is eager to put her past behind her and make a fresh start telling her housemates: "This is it for me, I need to clear the s**t that I'm carrying."

Friends, are reported to have said that the actress "won't hesitate to strip off" in order to win the series.

Celebrity Big Brother airs on Channel 5 at 9pm.