Jeremy Clarkson recants previous claim he bought farm for tax reasons

Jeremy Clarkson has backtracked on previous comments about why he bought his farm, saying he thought it would make “a better PR story if I said I bought it to avoid paying taxes”.

The TV presenter and journalist defied doctors’ orders by joining thousands of farmers in London on Tuesday to protest agricultural inheritance tax changes.

Standing outside Clarkson’s Farm, where Prime Video documents farming experiments on his Oxfordshire estate, the 64-year-old wrote in a post on the Top Gear website in 2010: “I bought a farm. There are many logical reasons for this: Land is a better investment than any bank can offer. When I die, the state will not take money from me. And the price of the food I grow can only go up.”

Clarkson also told the Times in 2021 that avoiding inheritance tax was the “critical thing” in her decision to buy land.

Addressing the claim in a new interview with The Times, the former Top Gear presenter said: “I’ve never actually admitted why I bought it.”

The bird hunting enthusiast added: “I wanted to shoot, I was so naive. I thought it would make a better PR story if I said I bought it to avoid paying taxes.

Clarkson was among thousands of people who took to the streets this week to protest changes to the budget that would introduce an inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million, and addressed crowds at a march in central London.

He told the paper he was unhappy about being the public face of the movement, saying: “It should be run by farmers.”

The presenter said he didn’t consider himself a farmer as there were “a lot of basic jobs” he couldn’t do, but felt his role was to “report on farming”.

Earlier this month it was confirmed that Clarkson’s Farm has been renewed for a fifth series, following huge interest in the Diddly Squat farm shop.

Asked whether the problem behind the tax protest was the concealment of rural poverty, Clarkson agreed and said his program did not help address the situation.

“One of the problems we have with the program is that we don’t show poverty, because there is clearly no poverty in Diddly Squat,” he said.

“But trust me, there is absolute poverty. I’m surrounded by farmers. I’m not going out to dinner with James Dyson.

“People with 200 decares, 400 decares of land. We’ve already crossed the threshold of Rachel Reeves. They f*.”

Jeremy Clarkson took to the streets of London with his farmer friend on Tuesday (Aaron Chown/PA). PA Media

The newspaper columnist also wrote Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on ITV. The Grand Tour, a motor show in which he participated with former Top Gear colleagues Richard Hammond and James May, ended in September.

Discussing whether she would enter politics, Clarkson said: “I would be a terrible political leader, hopeless.

“I’m a journalist at heart, I’d rather throw stones at people than have them throw them at me.”

However, after the farmers’ march, he said he would “be 100% behind any tensions”.

Clarkson revealed last month that he had heart surgery to insert a stent after experiencing a “sudden deterioration” in his health, resulting in symptoms of being “clammy”, “tightness” in his chest and “pins and needles” in his left hand. arm.

He said in a column in the Sunday Times that one of his arteries was “completely blocked and the third was heading that way” and that doctors had told him he was perhaps “days away” from becoming very ill.

Asked if he was considering retiring, the Doncaster-born celebrity said: “Probably not. I always think it depends on when you die.”

“You’ll be surprised, we Northerners are made of strong stuff.”