Jeremy Clarkson has said he can’t get on with people who voted for Brexit, weeks after experiencing the nightmare ramifications of leaving the EU.
Clarkson said that, generally, he can spend time with people who have differing views to his own – but “the one exception” is “people who voted for Brexit”.
He said: “It’s not so bad if they put their hands up and admit they made a mistake. But if I encounter someone who still thinks it was all a brilliant idea, I get so cross my hair catches fire and my teeth start to itch.”
The TV personality shared the extent of his disdain for Brexit in The Times after a simple recent journey he underwent for Clarkson’s Farm turned into a gargantuan mess.
Clarkson and Kaleb Cooper, the manager of the Diddly Squat farm at the centre of his Prime Video series, recently experienced first-hand the consequences of Brexit when they needed to travel through the Channel Tunnel to Calais.
However, they ended up getting caught up “in a gigantic lorry park full of trucks from every conceivable European country” before even reaching the underwater tunnel as they had to check filming equipment out of the UK.
The pair waited two hours “for someone in a cabin to stamp our form” and then were left dismayed when they realised they had to go through a similar process to check in their equipment after arriving in France.
“I have crossed many tricky borders over the years and the paperwork always takes time,” Clarkson said. “Iraq to Turkey took a moment, that’s for sure. And Rwanda into Tanzania was challenging as well. But nothing has ever taken as long as it took us to get from post-Brexit England into France.”
Clarkson questioned the government’s stance that Brexit is positive as “it’s better to be governed by a democratically elected parliament than some bankers in Brussels”.
He added: “I’m not sure about that. I’d certainly prefer the bankers to Starmer and Reeves. I’d prefer anything. The fourth form of my local school. My dogs. Trump, even.”
It’s been five years since Brexit – and while some argue that leaving the EU was a necessary step for sovereignty and regaining control over borders, many feel that the economic and social consequences have been overwhelmingly negative.
The country is facing, among other things, rising trade barriers and a weakened international standing, with businesses struggling due to additional paperwork and lost access to EU markets.
Last month, The Independent shone a light on the amount Brexit has cost the UK, with the government watchdog estimating that the economy will take a 15 per cent hit to trade in the long term. Meanwhile, experts suggested that the UK has suffered £100bn in lost output each year.
The cost of Brexit is still being determined, but the government watchdog estimates that the economy will take a 15 per cent hit to trade in the long term, while experts suggest that the UK has suffered £100bn in lost output each year.
In August 2024, former Top Gear and Grand Tour host Clarkson opened The Farmer’s Dog in August, paying less than £1m for the property formerly known as The Windmill, in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire.
The popular reception for the pub echoes the success of Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm shop, which attracts tourists from across the country due to its prominence in his Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm.
