Carphone Warehouse has pulled its sponsorship of Celebrity Big Brother with immediate effect.

"The Carphone Warehouse Group today announces that it is suspending its sponsorship of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother programme," the company said in a statement.

"Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house," said CEO Charles Dunstone. "We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse. As a result we feel that as long as this continues we are unable to associate our brand with the programme.

"We had already made it clear to Channel 4 that were this to continue, we would have to consider our position. Nothing we saw last night gave us any comfort. Accordingly we have instructed Channel 4 to remove our sponsorship name and branding with immediate effect."