Jeremy Clarkson has come out swinging in defence of Ed Sheeran, after the singer-songwriter’s tour received one hammer blow after another this week.
The Galway Girl singer has been embroiled in controversy over Macklemore’s removal from his US tour.
The decision came after the rapper said ‘Free Palestine’ on stage, which reportedly resulted in billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft – who is a supporter of and donor to the Israeli state – lobbying for his removal as a support act.
All the other support acts on Sheeran’s Loop tour, including the band that plays on stage with Sheeran, subsequently shared messages in solidarity with Macklemore and dropped out of the remaining tour dates.
The Clarkson’s Farm presenter has now described the response to Sheeran’s statement on Macklemore as ‘bullying’ in a column in The Sun.
Clarkson said the 35-year-old was ‘unbelievably polite and likeable’ when they met and stated they have a mutual friend who has assured him the singer still is as such.
He wrote in the column: ‘He literally said nothing at all and, for that, his fans are trying to offload tickets for his forthcoming tour, his support acts have all walked and, from what I hear, even his band is refusing to play with him.
‘They want him to sound off on Palestine, and because he’s not really that sort of person, the keyboard warriors have sent him to Coventry.’
Clarkson went on to label Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters ‘the worst bully of them all’, after he shared some choice words for Sheeran, in a clip titled ‘Ed Who?’
Waters has been a prominent critic of Israel, labelling their brutal military action against the Palestinian people a genocide. A UN commission this year published a report stating Israel continues to commit genocide and accused the state of war crimes.
Clarkson said he ‘doesn’t mind’ Waters’s views on Israel and cited Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall as a good example of a protest song.
He then added: ‘But how can you protest about Ed when you don’t know what he thinks? Because he hasn’t told us.’
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In Sheeran’s statement to Instagram this week, he said: ‘I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.’
He also stated: ‘I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy. There are too many wars across the world causing immeasurable pain, none of which should be tolerated.’
But Paloma Faith also came out to condemn Sheeran, saying that ‘being apolitical is a political act’.
She pointed to Sheeran’s performance at a Ukraine benefit concert as evidence that his abstention from politics was not absolute.
Faith said that the ability to ‘detach’ from the documented atrocities in Palestine ‘comes from a place of privilege’.