Jeremy Clarkson launched a fierce attack on Labour’s record on farming and business after making a surprise appearance at the Tory conference.
The motoring broadcaster and Clarkson’s Farm star delivered a bleak assessment of the pressures facing the agricultural industry during an on-stage appearance in Birmingham.
Speaking to shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins, Clarkson said ministers had failed to grasp the impact the controversial inheritance tax plans could have on family farms.
Clarkson also revealed that he was considering opening another pub, although he said the new venture would not be in Britain.
“Why would anybody set up a business in this country right now?” he asked in a blunt criticism of the UK’s business climate.
He said Environment Secretary Angela Eagle had postponed a meeting with his land agent, Charlie Ireland, three times. Clarkson also criticised what he called “low IQ” planning officers for interfering with decisions about how farmers use their own land.
The television presenter said the past year had been exceptionally tough on his Oxfordshire farm, with the harvest producing only “three ounces of hen food”.
Clarkson said he hoped temperatures would be lower in 2027, while acknowledging that he was fortunate to have income from other ventures.
“Not every farmer has a quiz show to host on ITV…” he joked.
Jeremy Clarkson made a surprise appearance at the Tory conference as he called for a fairer deal for farmers
In an interview with shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins, Clarkson said the year had been exceptionally difficult on his Oxfordshire farm
The television presenter said the harvest from his Oxfordshire farm amounted to only “three ounces of hen food”
Clarkson, who also presents Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on ITV, appeared alongside Mr Ireland, who features in his Amazon Prime series.
He said: “We worked really hard all year and we ended up with, I think I’m right in saying, three ounces of hen food.
“It was an absolute disaster on the farming side but, I mean, luckily we’ve got other projects going on now. But farming is very, very difficult, very, very difficult at the moment.”
He also pointed to the rising costs affecting the pub he operates near his farm in the Cotswolds.
Clarkson said: “I’m very fortunate that I do have other income streams and newspaper columns, but if you’re an ordinary farmer, it’s not just the weather.
“Remember, as Charlie was saying, the attacks come from everywhere – whether it’s Iran or Ukraine or taxes or energy costs – whatever it might be, it’s just relentless.”
The 66-year-old revealed during the latest season of his show that he was receiving treatment for prostate cancer.
Clarkson has attracted a huge audience by documenting his efforts to learn how to run a farm
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Is Jeremy Clarkson right that Britain is becoming a harder place to start a business?
Clarkson bought the then Curdle Hill Farm, which sits within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, nearly 20 years ago.
After deciding to run the farm himself in 2019, he renamed it the Diddly Squat Farm over its lack of productivity.
He then opened a restaurant on the site – allegedly without planning permission – but it was later shut down by West Oxfordshire District Council.
Two years ago Clarkson opened the Farmers’ Dog pub, formerly known as The Windmill, at Asthall, near Burford, which sells produce grown or reared by British farmers.
He has become a vocal supporter of farmers and attended a protest in London against the Government’s move to introduce inheritance tax on farmland in November 2024.
Former chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the levy in the party’s first budget, but it was watered down in December last year following a vocal campaign by farmers and internal pressure from some of Labour’s rural MPs, many of whom were elected for the first time in 2024.
Clarkson told party activists: ‘I am actually looking, as we speak, quite hard into the possibility of opening another pub.
‘It’s not going to be in the UK. Why would anybody set up a business in this country right now?’
He also mocked nature minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter for telling a Labour conference fringe event that the nostalgic view of rural life ‘never really existed’.
Ms Riddell-Carpenter had said: ‘It’ll be that warm ale, a black Labrador by your feet in a pub that doesn’t exist, and with symbolism of fox hunting all around them. It’ll be a very far-right nostalgic vision of Britain that we don’t want to have, (that) never really existed.’
Talking about the threats to rural farming communities and economy, Mr Ireland said: ‘As soon as that’s lost, then we’ll be living in a very different place without my two black Labradors.’
Mr Clarkson turned to Mr Ireland and said: ‘He’s got two black Labradors, and he drinks Hook Norton, which is warm beer.
‘Mine are fox reds (Labradors), and I drink cold lager. Oh, living, breathing socialism, right here.’
Mr Ireland also called for Britain to be ‘much more joined-up’ in terms of water storage.
‘We seem to get a lot in a short period during the winter, which flows to the sea, which it’s meant to do, but we could capture some of that perfectly sensibly. Storing that is a real problem at the moment,’ he said.
Clarkson added: ‘If you just left us alone, I’m pretty sure the countryside would be a lot better than it is now.’
Clarkson has long been associated with the Conservative Party. He was close to former prime minister Lord Cameron, with both having been part of the so-called ‘Chipping Norton set’ in the Cotswolds.
However, he did have some fun about the sparse turnout in the hall, quipping that a lot of people seem to have come ‘dressed as seats’.
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