Despite reports here, and here that the Lib Dem MP has signed up for next year's BB, the latest is, I'm afraid, a denial.

I'm quite disappointed about this news, it'd have been good to see how he held up. Surely he didn't have much to lose - his dignity disappeared some time ago. He should take a leaf out of Michael Barrymore and Les Dennis's book and give us, the potentially voting public, something entertaining to watch. To learn to love. Because, for all his tabloid ubiquity, former "Mr Cheeky" Lembit remains a bit of a spud-faced mystery.

According to the BBC report, Lembit's dismissed the claim as "absolute nonsense". He told the Beeb there's "no truth in it whatsoever" and The Sun are just up to no good again.

The 43-year-old has had a colourful private life. As we know, he dated ITV weather girl Sian Lloyd for four years before they split up after a brief engagement. Then he dated Gabriela Irima for a while, their relationship dogged with weird cheesy photos and enticing tales of how he wooed her at a military history museum or something.

Gabriela has since been seen on the arms of another man, while in definitely unrelated news, Lembit quit the front bench last month to put more time into his campaign against rivals Baroness Scott and Chandila Fernando. According to his spokesman, Mr Opik had never even been approached for the next series of CBB. Poor Lembit, he wasn't even asked.