Jeremy Clarkson is on. Or on the road. Britain’s most famous oil buff and owner of the Diddly Squat farm has been trying to organize a coach to transport him and his friends to London for the big protest planned for next Tuesday.
The stated goal of the meeting is to repeal Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax changes, which many farmers believe will destroy their livelihoods.
Although Clarkson believes his goal is even more nefarious. “I am increasingly convinced that Starmer and Reeves have a sinister plan,” he wrote.
Jeremy Clarkson has become the antihero of opponents of the Government overnight
‘They want to bombard our farmlands with new immigrant towns and net zero wind farms. But before they can do that, they have to ethnically cleanse the countryside of farmers.”
These typically incendiary comments have turned Clarkson into an overnight antihero for government opponents. So much so that one pollster, James Kanagasooriam, who came up with the term “Red Wall”, has claimed that his intervention could herald “Britain’s Trump moment”.
‘It has reach, a massive television programme, it is part of the mental furniture of the nation. He has become the most effective representative of the field in decades. He is much more unorthodox than his opponents suggest. And you end up finding all the right people,” he said.
Maybe. But it’s been just over a week since we had the current Trump moment. And one of the reasons he triumphantly returns to the White House is, in part, the interventions of people like Jeremy Clarkson.
I just returned from a few days in the United States. And as the autopsy of Kamala Harris’ calamitous defeat continues, several Democratic analysts were beginning to point fingers at the army of celebrity endorsers who had taken to the airwaves and social media to plead and berate their followers to to join their cause. .
“Somehow we think that if Beyoncé is on stage, that will solve all our problems,” lamented one Democratic strategist. ‘What people don’t realize is that this actually makes things worse. “It reinforces this perception that we are the party of the elites, that we do not understand what the working class is going through.”
Supporters of Jeremy Clarkson insist his planned appearance on the Westminster protest stage next week will be markedly different. On the one hand, they claim that he is not simply flaunting the issue, but as a working farmer, he has “skin in the game” and will be directly affected by Reeves’ policies.
But as he himself acknowledged when he declined to become the official leader of the campaign against the increase in inheritance tax. ‘I am not a family farmer, and those who support Starmer will point this out. Which means any points earned will be lost in a storm of class war cries.
Since Rachel Reeves’ statement there have been signs that the Government’s national poll numbers are beginning to stabilize.
They will do it. Not least because Labor is privately pleased with the way such a high-profile media celebrity is directing criticism of the budget.
‘Preparation revolved around whether it would affect workers. “That’s why we set the bar very high for small farms,” a Labor source told me. “When you have millionaires like Jeremy Clarkson and billionaires like James Dyson criticizing because their tax loophole is being closed, that tells people that we’ve got tough tax increases right.
There is some evidence to support that claim. In the month before the Budget, Labour’s poll ratings were in free fall and Keir Starmer’s personal approval figures were among the worst ever recorded.
But since Reeves’ statement there have been signs that the government’s national poll numbers are beginning to stabilize.
It’s true that the Conservatives were two points ahead of Labor in a poll this week. But that’s just one poll and the Prime Minister has actually enjoyed a modest rise in his own popularity.
The reality is that most Britons do not own multi-million pound farms and have not benefited from the significant tax concessions that farmers have been receiving in recent years.
It’s true that Jeremy Clarkson has a stronger personality than Taylor Swift or George Clooney. And he does not support a party or leader, but rather a specific cause.
But the reality is that most Brits don’t own multi-million pound farms. They have not benefited from the significant tax concessions that farmers have been receiving in recent years.
And while they sympathize with anyone suffering hardship as a result of decisions made by the political establishment, they will not be swayed by special pleading based on exaggerated talk of farmers facing a rural pogrom at the hands of Commissioner Reeves.
Especially when one of Britain’s most prominent self-styled farmers is clearly not a shilling or two short, and will have no difficulty making ends meet even when the new tax rules come into force.
When Jeremy Clarkson first announced that he was stepping away from his supercars to pursue farming, he was completely honest about his motivation. “Land is a better investment than any bank can offer,” he explained. ‘The Government will not receive any of my money when I die. And the price of the food I grow can only go up.’
As a famous farmer, Clarkson may be well placed to see first-hand the disproportionate impact of the Government’s £40bn tax rise on his neighbours. But he’s a celebrity anyway. And people are tired of being lectured to from the red carpet.
If our farmers really want to mobilize public support, they will have to do it themselves.
If those who have worked the land for generations are really going to experience untold hardship at the hands of Ministers who have little appreciation or respect for rural life, then they are the people Britain needs to see on its televisions, and in the pages of its newspapers .
He’s not the guy who made a name and a fortune testing Rolls-Royces, racing Ferraris and shooting used Vauxhall Astras in quarries.
Kamala Harris went all-in on her celebrity endorsers. She lost, and she lost a lot. British farmers cannot afford to make the same mistake.