[Loukas]

Benefits Street star White Dee has snubbed a £100,000 fee to appear on Celebrity Big Brother because filming for the reality TV show clashed with her existing television commitments.

Dee, real name Deirdre Kelly, cannot enter the Big Brother House after already pledging to take part in a TV cookery show, which is being made at the same time as CBB.

The Benefits Street star’s agent Barry Tomes said he could categorically deny media reports claiming Dee had accepted the £100,000 payment to appear on the Channel 5 show.

However he did not deny that she had been approached.

“I think Celebrity Big Brother is set to start in September and Dee is already committed to the cookery show which we are very excited about. This is being filmed at the end of August and early September so it would prevent her from going into the Big Brother house.

“It is extremely unlikely she will do CBB this year, but this may change for a future edition,” added Mr Tomes.

He said negotiations were already underway for Dee to appear in a reality show where she would learn to drive.

“We are talking with two television companies about that. Her daughter is also planning to get behind the wheel and Dee wants to be able to pass her test first,” explained Mr Tomes.

“The TV companies are really interested in this.”

Mr Tomes also revealed that Dee had not been receiving state handouts since March.

“She has not been claiming benefits while she has been on the trips to Majorca or appeared on TV. We could not say so at the time but all those people who accused her of earning cash while claiming handouts were wrong,” he raged.

Mr Tomes also denied he was using Benefits Street, the Channel Four show based on the lives of people in James Turner Street in Winson Green, to get rich himself.

He said: “I have invested a lot of money in Dee. We had an agreement that we will carry on until the end of the year and then see where we are. We still have to make sure she takes her medication because she is still suffering from depression.

“She has the potential to earn at least £500,000, and for the first four to six months of our agreement I have had to invest a lot of money in her career. When it comes to December we will renegotiate,” said Mr Tomes.

He also revealed Dee’s former neighbour Fungi was now living in rural Wales as he battled to get off drugs and alcohol dependency.“

He has spent five months in rehab and is clean now. He even has a girlfriend and has been back to visit his pals in James Turner Street,” laughed Mr Tomes.

BirminghamMail.co.uk