Jeremy Clarkson U-turns on claims he bought farm to avoid inheritance tax after being called out

Jeremy Clarkson has U-turned on his claims over why he bought his farm (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)

Jeremy Clarkson has backpedalled on his previous comments about why he bought his farm, saying he thought it would be a ‘better PR story if I said I bought it to avoid paying tax’.

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

During the protest, he was served a grilling from Victoria Derbyshire, where he blasted her questions as ‘classic BBC’ after she threw his own words back at him.

The 64-year-old, who fronts Prime Video’s Clarkson’s Farm, which documents the trials of farming on his land in Oxfordshire, wrote in a post on the Top Gear website in 2010: ‘I have bought a farm. There are many sensible reasons for this: Land is a better investment than any bank can offer. The government doesn’t get any of my money when I die. And the price of the food that I grow can only go up.’

Clarkson also told The Times in 2021 that avoiding inheritance tax was ‘the critical thing’ in his decision to buy land.

He is now firmly against the farming inheritance tax, which was introduced in last month’s Budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and will see a tax of 20% raised on agricultural assets above £1 million.

At the London protest, Newsnight host Derbyshire asked Clarkson: ‘So it’s not about you, it’s not about your farm and the fact that you brought a farm to avoid inheritance tax?’

After repeating, ‘No,’ he questioned their facts: ‘Classic BBC. The fact that I bought a farm to avoid inheritance tax? The fact?’

Addressing the claim in a new interview with The Times, the former Top Gear presenter said: ‘I never did admit why I really bought it.’

The fan of game bird shooting added: ‘I wanted to have a shoot – I was very naive. I just thought it would be a better PR story if I said I bought it to avoid paying tax.’

Clarkson was among the thousands who took to the streets this week to protest over the changes in the recent Budget to impose inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million and he addressed the crowds at the march in central London.

He told the newspaper he is not happy to be the public face of the movement, saying: ‘It should be led by farmers.’

Clarkson attended the farmer’s protest in London last week (Picture: Reuters)

Clarkson addressed his past claims that he’d bought his farm to dodge inheritance tax (Picture: EPA)

The presenter said he does not consider himself a farmer because there are ‘so many basic jobs’ which he cannot do, but he feels his role is to ‘report on farming’.

His comments come after he told Derbyshire at the protest: ‘Okay, let’s start from the beginning. I wanted a [pheasant] shoot, okay? That’s even worse to the BBC. I wanted a shoot, which comes with the benefit of not paying inheritance tax. Now I do.

‘But people like me will just put it in a trust, and as long as I live for seven years that’s fine, and as my daughter said, “You will live for seven years”.

‘You might be in a deep freeze at the end of it, but you will live for seven years.’

Earlier this month, it was confirmed Clarkson’s Farm, which has attracted huge attention to his Diddly Squat farm shop, had been renewed for a fifth series.

Asked whether the issue behind the tax protest is that rural poverty is hidden, Clarkson agreed and said his programme was not helping to address the situation.

‘One of the problems we have on the show is we’re not showing the poverty either, because obviously on Diddly Squat there isn’t any poverty,’ he said.

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

‘It’s people with 200 acres, 400 acres. Way past Rachel Reeves’s threshold. They are f*****.’

Clarkson’s Farm, in which the presenter stars alongside Kaleb Cooper, has been renewed for a fifth series (Picture: Amazon Prime)

The newspaper columnist also presents Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on ITV. The Grand Tour, his motoring show with former Top Gear colleagues Richard Hammond and James May, ended in September.

Discussing whether he might move into politics, Clarkson said: ‘I’d be a terrible political leader, hopeless.

‘I’m a journalist at heart, I prefer throwing rocks at people than having them thrown at me.’

However, he said he would be ‘100% behind any escalation’ after the farmers’ march.

Clarkson admitted he’d be a ‘hopeless political leader’ (Picture: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Clarkson revealed last month he had undergone a heart procedure to have stents fitted after experiencing a ‘sudden deterioration’ in his health which brought on symptoms of being ‘clammy’, a ‘tightness’ in his chest and ‘pins and needles’ in his left arm.

He said in a Sunday Times column that one of his arteries was ‘completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way’ and doctors said he was perhaps ‘days away’ from becoming very ill.

Asked if he is thinking about retiring, the Doncaster-born celebrity said: ‘Probably not. It depends when you die, I always think.

‘You’d be surprised, us Northerners are made of strong stuff.’

Clarkson’s Farm is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.