Jeremy Clarkson brands BBC ‘mouthpiece of this infernal Government’ at farmers’ IHT protest.
Key moments
- 2:03pm
- Badenoch: Tax will ‘destroy farming as we know it’
- 1:15pm
- First Labour MPs raise concerns over Treasury’s tax raid on family farms
- 11:49am
- NFU demands sit-down meeting with Reeves
- 11:33am
- Clarkson: Labour has ‘cocked up’ and should now back down
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Addressing a crowd of around 10,000 people, Clarkson urged Labour to abandon its IHT raid as there is “very little money” in farming.
Mr Clarkson, who became a farmer five years ago, said he was “staggered” by the costs involved, adding: “What’s the point? You’re just trying to make breakfast, lunch, dinner and there’s just endless moaning and no money in it.”
Referring to an interview he had just done with BBC Newsnight, he said that presenter Victoria Derbyshire had cited Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ calculation that 72 per cent of farms would be unaffected by the IHT tax changes.
He then asked farmers in the crowds to raise their hands and then drop them if they believed they would be unaffected - showing very few arms falls down.
He added: “Since when was the BBC the mouthpiece of this infernal Government?”
Finishing his brief speech, Mr Clarkson said: “I beg of the Government to be big - to accept this was rushed through, it wasn’t thought through and it was a mistake.” DT.
