JEREMY Clarkson today lashed out at his former employer over his coverage of the farmers’ protest.
The former Top Gear presenter is among 10,000 farmers marching on Whitehall to protest Labour’s so-called ‘tractor tax’ announced in the Autumn Budget.
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Jeremy Clarkson criticizes BBC during live interview Credit: @Newsnight / X
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Clarkson spoke to a Newsnight reporter in Victoria Derbyshire surrounded by farmers Credit: @Newsnight / X
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He accused the Beeb of being a ‘mouthpiece’ for the Government. Credit: @Newsnight / X
It is calling on the government to overhaul inheritance tax rules by introducing a 20 per cent tax on estates over £1 million.
During a fiery interview with Victoria Derbyshire outside Parliament, he angrily said: “Typical BBC. You people.”
Later, during a separate speech, while addressing protesting farmers, he said: “Since when has the BBC been the mouthpiece of this infernal government?”
Mr Clarkson, 64, accused the Newsnight presenter of being unbiased in her reporting on the government’s inheritance tax rip-off.
Desperate farmers brought their tractors from across the country to the capital to show their dismay at Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ plan.
Ms Derbyshire asked Mr Clarkson: “So it’s not about you, your farm and avoiding a succession attack?”
The Clarkson’s Farm and Grand Tour star rolled her eyes and said: “There’s a BBC classic. A classic.”
Mrs. Derbyshire replied “is it?” before referring to an article Mr Clarkson wrote in the Sunday Times in 2021 about tax relief on buying a farm.
The presenter said: “Typical BBC. You people.”
He disputed Ms Derbyshire’s claim that it was a “fact” that he had bought his farm in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, for tax purposes, before adding that she was simply expressing her “opinion”.
The moment Jeremy Clarkson calls for a doctor as a protesting farmer gets ‘sick’ while speaking at a Westminster rally
He went on to joke that she formed her views in the same “sixth-form debating society” as Mrs Reeves.
Mr Clarkson then laughed when Ms Derbyshire said: “I’m not expressing opinions, I’m literally asking you questions.”
The BBC reporter then repeated the Chancellor’s claims that an inheritance tax increase would “raise money for public services”.
Mr Clarkson then turned to the crowd of farmers and asked: “Are you listening to this?”
Explaining his purchase of his farm, he said: “Let’s start from the beginning. I wanted to shoot, which comes with the benefit of not paying inheritance tax, and now I do.
“People like me will just put it in a trust, and as long as I live for seven years that’s fine.
“As my daughter says, you might be in a deep freeze at the end, but you’ll live for seven years.
“It’s incredibly time-consuming to do that, why would all these people have to do that, why would they?”
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Jeremy addressed the crowd and called on the government to make a U-turn on taxesCredit: Getty
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Gloucester farmers drive their tractors to London to protest Credit: Alamy
He claimed the increase was introduced to “stop rich people”.
Mrs Derbyshire then asked “where are they supposed to get the money from if not the farmers?” to which Clarkson replied: “Did you all hear that? The BBC thinks you should pay for everything.”
He added: “Do you know how many people pay inheritance tax in this country?
“Four per cent pay inheritance tax, 96 per cent of the UK population don’t pay inheritance tax. Once this becomes law, 96 per cent of farmers will.”
Asked where he got the figure from, Mr Clarkson turned to the crowd of farmers and said: “Who here is not going to be affected by these changes? Nobody.”
He said his message to the Government was: “Please step aside… they’ve got £40 billion, I’ll tell you where to get the money, walk into any office here, if you don’t understand someone’s job, fire them.”
‘SHOULDN’T’
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Diddly Squat Farm owner Clarkson said: “I’ve never been to a protest before and we shouldn’t be doing this.”
Asked about the new “tractor tax” rules, he added: “I think DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has been pushed into it.
“I don’t think DEFRA have much appetite for it because they have to deal with farmers, they know how angry they are.
“I think it was a treasure. I think it was Comrade Reeves.
“The treasury proposed it, she drank it.”
Mr Clarkson – who boarded the bus with other Cotswold farmers – said he did not think British landowners would block the roads.
He said: “We are not Just Stop Oil so we will not block the roads.
“But I really like the idea of channeling our inner French.
“When you’ve made a mistake like the government did, you take a step back and say ‘I screwed up a bit.’
ARLENE FOSTER: Farmer betrayal proves NO ONE is safe from Labour’s predatory hands
From the farmer’s daughter Dame Arlene Foster
LABOR’S betrayal of the farm tax is a policy so out of touch that it could only come from a party increasingly defined by the politics of envy.
These changes are not only a financial blow, but also an attack on the way of life that has sustained our country for generations.
As someone who has seen firsthand the relentless challenges farmers face, I cannot remain silent.
Agriculture is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult occupations. Imagine working 80 hours a week, often in isolation, battling rain, frost or extreme heat to put food on the tables of millions.
All this while managing mountains of bureaucracy from government agencies on the one hand and fending off the relentless demands of supermarket giants for lower prices on the other.
For most, the rewards are modest, yet they persevere – not for wealth, but for pride in their work and the hope of leaving something for their children.
This inheritance tax proposal strikes at the very heart of that hope
Labour’s politics are a stark reminder of what happens when ideology trumps understanding.
This is a government run not by honesty but by a desire to punish those who work hard and build something for their families.
First, they came for the pensioners, took away their winter leave.
Now they are coming for farmers, threatening the survival of family farms.
Who will be next? Small entrepreneurs? Homeowners?
No one striving to create and pass on a legacy seems safe from Labour’s grasping hand.
“It would be nice to think they are big enough to say that.
“Only four percent pay inheritance tax in this country.
“So the only people who will pay inheritance tax after this will be the farmers.
“They have to pay it as non-existent income. It’s pretty absurd.”
He later took to the stage to address the protesters, joking that he was “crazy on codeine and paracetamol, I don’t know why I’m saying that”.
Farmers are furious with the government over its changes to inheritance tax, which limit the existing 100% farm relief to just the first £1m of combined farming and business assets.
Ministers, however, said farmers were “wrong” to think the changes would affect thousands of farming businesses, insisting only around 500 of the wealthiest estates would have to pay tax under the move.
Clarkson today called for them to stand down, telling the crowd: “For the sake of everyone here and for all the farmers who are left at home paralyzed by the fog of despair at what has been imposed on them, I’m asking the Government to be big and accept that this was rushed, It wasn’t thought through and it was a mistake.”
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Thousands of angry farmers gathered in the capital to have their say. Credit: Reuters
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Jezza admitted that he had never been to a protest before Credit: Reuters
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