The Telegraph newspaper has suggested Jeremy Clarkson could be the UK’s answer to Donald Trump after he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins at the farmers’ rally.
Clarkson took to the stage at the event, pleading with the government to “back down” and “be big enough” to acknowledge they “made a mistake” by introducing an inheritance tax on some farmers.
“It was a political speech in the wellies of activism”, The Telegraph’s Guy Kelly said.
“Here was a brutally charismatic, multi-millionaire media figure connecting with the broken and the seething in a way that traditional politicians could only dream of.”
On the other side of the Atlantic, another man matching that description, Donald Trump, has just won an overwhelming election victory that will put him back in the White House, the newspaper goes on to say.
Quoting pollster James Kanagasooriam, who recently said Clarkson entering politics could be Britain’s “Trump moment”, they suggest that his media appeal and ability to “wind up the right people” could curry favour amongst the British public.
“If you were going to have a British Trump, that person would need to be great on TV, popular, and someone who gains traction because they can create dividing lines and build a brand off public opposition as much as support. They’d need clear views and, like Trump, give off a sense of having common sense and mainstream values in the face of wokeness and political weakness,” James Frayne from opinion research agency Public First said.
“They’d also need to be rich, so they don’t have to worry about the next pay cheque while they wage political battles.”
Sounds like he ticks all the boxes!
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