JEREMY Clarkson today slammed his former employer over its coverage of the farmers’ protest.
The former Top Gear presenter is among 10,000 farmers protesting Labour’s so-called ‘tractor tax’, announced in the Autumn Budget, by marching on Whitehall.
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He is urging the government to reverse the inheritance tax rules slapping a 20 per cent levy on holdings of more than £1 million.
During a fiery interview with Victoria Derbyshire outside Parliament he angrily said: “Typical BBC. You people.”
Later, during a separate speech, as he addressed protesting farmers, he said: “Since when was the BBC the mouthpiece of this infernal government?”
Mr Clarkson, 64, accused the Newsnight host of failing to be impartial in her reporting of the Government’s inheritance tax grab.
Desperate farmers have driven their tractors from the across the country to the capital to show their dismay at Chanceller Rachel Reeves’ plan.
Ms Derbyshire asked Mr Clarkson: “So, it’s not about you, your farm and to avoid inheritance attack?”
The Clarkson’s Farm and Grand Tour star rolled his eyes and said: “Classic BBC there. Classic.”
Ms Derbyshire responded “is it?” before referencing an article Mr Clarkson had written in the Sunday Times in 2021 about the tax benefits of buying a farm.
The presenter said: “Typical BBC. You people.”
He disputed Ms Derbyshire’s claim it was a “fact” he bought his farm in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, for tax purposes, before adding that she was simply expressing her “opinion”.
He went on to joke she had formed her views at the same “sixth form debating society” as Ms Reeves.
Mr Clarkson then laughed when Ms Derbyshire said: “I am not expressing opinions I am literally asking you questions.”
The BBC journalist then repeated the Chancellor’s claims that inheritance tax going up would “raise money for public services”.
Mr Clarkson then turned to the crowds 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, now I do.
“People like me will simply put it in a trust, and so long as I live for seven years that’s fine.
“As my daughter says, you might be in a deep freeze at the end of it, but you will live for seven years.
“It is incredibly time consuming to have to do that, why should all these people have to do that, why should they?”
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He argued the rise had been brought in, to “stop wealthy people”.
Ms Derbyshire then asked “where should they get their money from if not farmers?” to which Clarkson replied: “Did you hear that everyone? BBC thinks you should be paying 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 population of the UK does not pay inheritance tax. After this becomes a law, 96 per cent of farmers will.”
Asked where he’d got his figure from, Mr Clarkson turned to the crowd of farmers and said: “Who here is going to be unaffected by these changes? No one.”
He went on to say his message to the Government is: “Please back down… they’ve got £40billion, I’ll tell you where to get the money from, walk into any offices around here, if you don’t understand what somebodies’ job is, fire them.”
‘SHOULDN’T HAVE TO’
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Diddly Squat farm owner Clarkson said: “I’ve never been on a protest before and we shouldn’t be having to do it.”
Asked about the new “tractor tax” rules, he added: “I think DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) were pushed into it.
“I don’t think there’s a much of an appetite in DEFRA for it because they have to deal with farmers, they know how cross they are.
“I think it was the treasury. I think it was comrade Reeves.
“The treasury have suggested it, she’s lapped it up.”
Mr Clarkson – who boarded a coach alongside other farmers from the Cotswolds – said he did not think Brit landowners would block roads.
He said: “We are not Just Stop Oil so won’t block roads.
“But I quite like the idea of channelling our inner French.
“When you’ve made a mistake like the government has done, you take a step back and say ‘I’ve cocked up slightly there’.
ARLENE FOSTER: Farmers’ betrayal proves NO ONE is safe from Labour’s grasping hands
By farmer’s daughter Dame Arlene Foster
LABOUR’S farm tax betrayal is a policy so out of touch it could only come from a party increasingly defined by the politics of envy.
These changes are not only a financial blow but an attack on a way of life that has sustained our country for generations.
As someone who has seen first-hand the relentless challenges farmers face, I cannot stay silent.
Farming is, without question, one of the hardest professions. Imagine working 80-hour weeks, often in isolation, braving rain, frost, or blistering heat to put food on the tables of millions.
All this while navigating mountains of bureaucracy from government agencies on one side and fending off the relentless demands for lower prices from supermarket giants on the other.
For most, the rewards are meagre, and yet they persist—not for wealth but for pride in their work and the hope of leaving something behind for their children.
This inheritance tax proposal strikes at the very heart of that hope
Labour’s policy is a stark reminder of what happens when ideology trumps understanding.
This is a government driven not by fairness but by a desire to punish those who work hard and build something for their families.
First, they came for the pensioners, stripping them of their winter fuel allowances.
Now, they are coming for the farmers, threatening the very existence of family-run farms.
Who will be next? Small business owners? Homeowners?
It seems that no one who seeks to create and pass on a legacy is 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 paying inheritance tax after this will be farmers.
“They have to pay it as a non-existent income. It’s quite absurd.”
He later took to a stage to address protesters, joking he was “off my t**s on codeine and paracetamol, I don’t know why I’m saying”.
Farmers are furious with the government over its inheritance tax changes, which limit the existing 100% relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.
Ministers, however, have said farmers are “wrong” to think that thousands of farm businesses will be affected by the changes, insisting only around 500 of the wealthiest estates will have to pay tax under the move.
Clarkson today urged them to back down, telling the crowd: “For the sake of everybody here, and for all the farmers stuck at home paralysed by a fog of despair over what’s been foisted on them, I beg of the Government to be big and accept this was rushed through, it wasn’t thought out and it was a mistake.”
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