Jeremy Clarkson has performed a U-turn on his previous claims that he purchased his farm to avoid paying inheritance tax.
The former Top Gear host has been in the public eye in recent days after joining thousands of farmers for a protest in central London last week.
The march was in protest against changes to agricultural inheritance tax. In the Budget last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the tax will be payable for the first time on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m.
During his appearance at the protest, Clarkson was interviewed by the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire, who addressed previous comments he had made in 2021 in which he admitted avoiding inheritance tax was a “critical thing” in his decision to buy a farm.
And back in 2010, Clarkson wrote on the Top Gear website that he had bought a farm because “land is a better investent than any bank can offer” and “the government doesn’t get any of my money when I die.”
Now, in a new interview with the Times, the 64-year-old has claimed he tax benefits were not the real reason he brought the farm, which has since become the subject of his hugely popular Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm.
He told the publication: “I never did admit why I really bought it.”
Clarkson claimed the real reason he purchased the land was so he could have somewhere to go shooting for game.
He said: “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 addressed crowds at the London march last week, and has become a vocal figure in the anger against inheritance tax changes.
But many have pointed out Clarkson should not be considered the farming hero that many are seeing him as.
Speaking to PoliticsJOE, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop pointed out that Clarkson has a “slightly vested interest” in the issue, and that most farmers would actually not be affected by the tax changes.
He said: “I think farmers are having a very tough time. I think protesting about the inheritance tax is the wrong thing.
“I mean, Clarkson only brought the land in order to avoid inheritance tax, so we do know that he has a slightly vested interest in this.
“He’s become a bit of a hero of the farming community because they think nobody cares or says anything about them.”
He continued: “We [Private Eye] have been fairly consistent in supporting farmers but our correspondent says, in this case, very few farms are affected by inheritance tax.
“There is a three million [pound] limit, which is extraordinary – that’s what the government says as well. They explained it very, very badly, and the narrative has come out that the Labour government is trying to destroy Britain’s farming, which I don’t think it is. What it’s trying to do is raise tax.”
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