Jeremy Clarkson has taken aim at Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the ‘dire’ state of the British pub industry.
The former Top Gear host opened the doors of his pub, The Farmer’s Dog, in April 2024.
Months later, and the Labour party came into power, with Keir Starmer appointed Prime Minister after winning that year’s general election.
Clarkson’s Farm frontman Jeremy has been vocal about his thoughts on the new regime – even going so far as to ban all Labour MPs from his pub in protest against rising taxes.
In his latest column, Clarkson has shared his thoughts on plans to lower the drink-drive limit in the UK.
This, he fears, is another nail in the coffin for the hospitality industry, sharing his theory that the current ruling party ‘actively hate’ business.
Writing in his column with The Times, Jeremy used celebrity chef Tom Kerridge as an example, sharing how he’d asked ‘what’s the point being open?’ in response to rising taxes and bills.
‘At my pub, the Farmer’s Dog, things aren’t quite so bleak but they’re still pretty terrible,’ Jeremy admitted.
‘The rateable value would shoot up from £27,250 to £55,000 and when you factor in the national insurance rise, which has upped our wage bill by £42,000 a year, we’d be up a gum tree,’ he claimed.
‘Because how can you pass this on to customers when they have a £2 billion gas bill to pay and they can’t get there anyway because of the new drink driving rules.’
He went on to slam the government’s approach to business, sharing how many think the problem is that neither Starmer nor his frontbench colleagues have any experience of running a business – ‘so it’s not something they can comprehend.’
However the real issue, in his mind, goes deeper than that.
‘It’s not that they don’t understand business, they actively hate it,’ Jeremy finished.
Jezza did celebrate one small victory recently though. Last week, the Millionaire Hot Seat host won a year-long fight to expand The Farmer’s Dog.
After applying for permission to lay hard surfacing in both car parks, the journalist and broadcaster hasbeen given the go ahead by officials at West Oxfordshire District Council.
According to The Oxford Mail, the decision was made this month, after a year’s deliberation.
One set of pubgoers who won’t be welcome on the all-new and improved Farmer’s Dog site is Keir Starmer and his MPs.
On his latest mandate, Jeremy told The Sun: ‘To be clear, I have banned all Labour MPs from my pub.’
Starmer and his comrades will join former Top Gear co-host James May and a woman who asked for tabasco in her Bloody Mary among the 400-plus people who are banned from his pub.
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