Is a cheap helmet an unsafe helmet?
No. Regardless of price, if a helmet is approved to, and labelled as, ECE 22.05/22.06 or BS 6658:1985 it is a safe helmet.
There is no connection between the protection indicated by a SHARP star rating and the price of a helmet. A budget price helmet can have four or five stars. An expensive helmet can have a low star rating. As a buyer, you cannot see what additional features have been included in a helmet to make it offer more protection than the legal minimum requirement. As a buyer you cannot see what extra protection has been left out of a helmet to compensate for costly paint, and styling or the addition of features like comms. Use the SHARP star rating to check which helmets within your price range have more protection, after you have made your choice based on fit and comfort.
