Jeremy Clarkson hit back at Victoria Derbyshire on Tuesday at the fraught farmers’ rally in Westminster. The Clarkson’s Farm presenter descended on Parliament Square with his Amazon Prime co-star, Kaleb Cooper, 26, to protest against the Government’s £1m inheritance tax on farms.
Joined by a fleet of tractors and angry farmers, the presenter stuck up for his agricultural allies, which have became a huge part of his life since he started his smash hit show. However, when questioned by BBC journalist, Victoria, if he was at the rally for “himself”, he fumed: “Typical BBC. You people!” reports the Mirror.
The squabble began when Victoria asked the TV star why he was protesting, clarifying: “So it’s not about you, your farm and to avoid inheritance attack?”
Rolling his eyes at the broadcasters question, Jeremy quipped: “Classic BBC there. Classic.” Victoria shot back: “Is it?”, referring to an article in the Sunday Times where the dad-of-three wrote about the tax benefits of buying a farm.
Jeremy then disagreed it was a “fact” he’d purchased his Oxfordshire farm for tax purposes, insisting it was because he loved country sports such as shooting.
The now visibly furious presenter continued: “Typical BBC. You people”, and would later say to the crowd around them: “Are you listening to this?” when Victoria repeated Rachel Reeves’ claims that the inheritance tax raised would “raise money for public services”.
Continuing his rant, which was recorded for BBC’s Newsnight, 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?” Jeremy added that the “only reason'” Rachel Reeves bought in the inheritance tax on farmers was to “stop wealthy people using it”.
On Tuesday, the 64-year-old admitted he was flouting his doctor’s orders by attending the rally after he was warned not to put himself in ‘stressful’ situations. However, the outspoken car enthusiast was keen to make his voice heard in Westminster, even though he was rushed in for an emergency heart operation only last month.
Farmers have staged protests in the UK, calling for the Government to scrap its changes to agricultural inheritance tax. Protests have reupted outside the Welsh Labour conference over the new taxes for farms worth more than £1 million, which have been fulled by uncertainty about Treasury figures the Budget bombshell is based on.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is holding a mass lobby of MPs with 1,800 of its members – three times as many people as originally planned – to urge backbenchers to stand up to the Government’s plans to impose inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million.
And thousands more are expected to join a separate rally in Whitehall as they protest against last month’s Budget, which also sped up the phase out of EU-era subsidies as funding is switched to nature-friendly farming schemes.
Farmers have reacted with anger to the inheritance tax changes for farming businesses, which limit the existing 100% relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.For anything above that, landowners will pay a 20% tax rate, rather than the standard 40% rate of inheritance tax (IHT) applied to other land and property.
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