Jeremy Clarkson is on his way. Or on the ride. Britain’s most famous car enthusiast and owner of the Diddly Squat farm has tried to arrange a bus to transport himself and his friends to London for the big protest planned for next Tuesday.
The stated purpose of the meeting is to reverse Rachel Reeves’ estate tax changes, which many farmers say will destroy their livelihoods.
Although Clarkson thinks her goal is even more nefarious. “I am increasingly convinced that Starmer and Reeves have a sinister plan,” he wrote.
Jeremy Clarkson has overnight become an anti-hero for the government’s opponents
“They want to bomb our farmland with new cities for immigrants and zero-energy wind farms. But before they can do that, they have to ethnically cleanse the countryside of farmers.”
Such typically inflammatory comments have turned Clarkson into an overnight anti-hero for the administration’s opponents. So much so that one pollster, James Kanagasooriam, who first coined the term The Red Wall, has declared that his intervention could be a harbinger of “Britain’s Trump moment.”
‘He has reach, a huge TV show, is part of the mental furniture of the country. He has become the country’s most effective representative in decades. He is much more heterodox than his opponents suggest. And he knows how to find the right people,” he claimed.
Maybe. But it’s been a little over a week now since we got the factual Trump moment. And one of the reasons he makes a triumphant return to the White House is – in part – because of interventions from people like Jeremy Clarkson.
I just got back from a few days in the United States. And as the post-mortem of Kamala Harris’ disastrous defeat continued, some Democratic analysts began pointing fingers at the army of celebrity endorsers who had taken to the airwaves and social media to beg and berate their followers to to rally to her cause. .
“Somehow we think if Beyoncé is on stage it will solve all our problems,” one Democratic strategist complained. ‘What people don’t realize is that it actually makes it worse. It reinforces this perception that we are the party of the elites, that we don’t understand what the working class is going through.”
Jeremy Clarkson’s supporters claim his planned appearance on the Westminster protest stage next week will be markedly different. First, they argue that he’s not just showboating on the issue, but that as a working farmer he actually has “skin in the game” and will be directly affected by Reeves’ policies.
But as he himself acknowledged when he refused to become official leader of the campaign against raising inheritance taxes. ‘I am not a family farmer, and those who support Starmer will point this out. That means all the points scored will be lost in a blizzard of class struggle.”
Since Rachel Reeves’ statement, there have been signs that the government’s national poll numbers are beginning to stabilize
They will. Not least because Labor is personally pleased with the way criticism of the budget is being led by such a high-profile media celebrity.
‘The construction was about whether it would have consequences for working people. That’s why we’re setting the bar high for small farms,” a Labor source told me. “When you’ve got millionaires like Jeremy Clarkson and billionaires like James Dyson complaining about having their tax loophole closed, that tells people we’ve handled difficult tax increases well.
There is some evidence to support this claim. In the month leading up to the Budget, Labor polling was in freefall, and Keir Starmer’s personal approval ratings were among the worst on record.
But since Reeves’ statement, there are signs that the government’s national poll numbers are beginning to stabilize.
It is true that the Tories were two points ahead of Labor in a poll this week. But that’s just one survey 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 breaks that farmers have received in recent years
It’s true that Jeremy Clarkson is a more grounded personality than a Taylor Swift or a George Clooney. And he does not support a party or leader, but a specific cause.
But the reality is that most Britons don’t own multi-million pound farms. They have not benefited from the significant tax breaks that farmers have received in recent years.
And while they sympathize with all who suffer 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 by Commissioner Reeves.
Especially when one of Britain’s leading farmers is clearly not short of a few pennies, and won’t really struggle to make ends meet even if the new tax rules come into effect.
When Jeremy Clarkson first announced he would be giving up his supercars to delve into farming, he was completely honest about his motivations. “Land is a better investment than any bank can offer,” he explained. ‘The government won’t get any of my money if I die. And the price of the food I grow can only increase.’
As a famous farmer, Clarkson may be well placed to see first-hand the disproportionate impact of the Government’s £40 billion tax hike on his neighbours. But he’s a celebrity nonetheless. And people are tired of being lectured 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 about to experience unprecedented 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 television, and on the pages of their newspapers.
Not the man who made his name and fortune driving Rolls-Royces, racing Ferraris and shooting Opel Astras into quarries.
Kamala Harris bet the farm on her celebrities. She lost, and lost big. British farmers cannot afford to make the same mistake.