Jeremy Clarkson takes fresh swipe at Victoria Derbyshire

Jeremy Clarkson has taken a fresh swipe at Victoria Derbyshire, as the Grand Tour Star revealed he was in a 'fog of painkillers' during their farmers protest clash. 

Writing in his column for The Times, Clarkson said he 'could have given a better account of myself' had he not been taking a combination of codeine and paracetamol for a recently slipped disc which had left him in a bit of a haze. 

The Top Gear presenter accused Derbyshire of being 'passive-aggressive' during their exchange and questioned whether she would have been the same with Bob Geldof when he was setting up Live Aid. 

In a sardonic tone, Clarkson said: '[Derbyshire] had been given a lot of facts by all her alphabet friends in the Labour Party, and she wanted to know why I wouldn't give all my money to the NHS.

'Had I not been operating in a fog of painkillers, I probably could have given a better account of myself.'

The broadcaster turned farmer, 64, said both his London friends and doctor urged him not to attend the march but for different reasons. 

'Why stick your head over the parapet when you know someone is going to throw a Derbyshire-shaped rock at you?', his friends reportedly said. 

Whereas his doctor thought exposing his 'recently broken heart to that kind of stress was madness'.  

The Top Gear host recently underwent an urgent heart operation following a 'sudden deterioration' in his health, where he was fitted with a stent to hold his arteries open, to improve blood flow to his heart and relieve his chest pain.

But Clarkson defied doctors' orders to be at the march and hired two coaches to take farmers from the Cotswolds to London. 

When they alighted the coaches, Clarkson said it 'transpired they [farmers] had no idea where Whitehall was' and so he had no choice but to show them how to get there. 

It was then, he said, he was  'pounced on by about two million hacks' including Derbyshire.  

Clarkson became exasperated with Derbyshire while speaking to her on Whitehall, which was packed with more than 10,000 other protesters upset about Labour's inheritance tax grab. 

Mr Clarkson's argument began when Ms Derbyshire had questioned whether he was there for himself rather than British farmers, asking him: 'So it's not about you, your farm and to avoid inheritance tax?'.

A clearly taken aback Mr Clarkson immediately rolled his eyes and said: 'Classic BBC there. Classic'. Ms Derbyshire shot back: 'Is it?', referring to an article in the Sunday Times where he wrote about the tax benefits of buying a farm.

A now visibly angry Clarkson continued: 'Typical BBC. You people'. He then disputed her claim that it was a 'fact' that he bought his Oxfordshire farm for tax purposes, explaining it was because he loved country sports such as shooting.

He accused the Newsnight host of giving her own 'opinion' away, joking that she had formed her views at the same 'sixth form debating society' as Chancellor Reeves. 

Clarkson, who worked for the BBC as Top Gear host for more than 20 years, then burst out laughing when Derbyshire told him: 'I am not expressing opinions I am literally asking you questions'.

And he also turned to the crowd around them and said: 'Are you listening to this?' when the experienced journalist repeated Ms Reeves' claims that the inheritance tax raised would 'raise money for public services'.

Explaining his purchase of his farm he said: 'Let's start from the beginning I wanted to shoot, which comes with the benefit of not paying inheritance tax, now I do.

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'People like me will simply put it in a trust, and so long as I live for seven years that's fine. As my daughter says, you might be in a deep freeze at the end of it, but you will live for seven years.

'It is incredibly time consuming to have to do that, why should all these people have to do that, why should they?'

Clarkson said the 'only reason' Rachel Reeves brought in the inheritance tax on farmers was to 'stop wealthy people'.

When Ms Derbyshire argued that Ms Reeves had bought in the measure to 'raise money for public services', Clarkson turned to the protesters and said: 'Are you listening to this?'

'When asked if he'd had a GP appointment recently, he said: 'Yes, I just recently had a heart attack.'

Ms Derbyshire then asked 'where should they get their money from if not farmers?' to which Clarkson replied: 'Did you hear that everyone? BBC thinks you should be paying for everything.'

He added: 'Do you know how many people pay inheritance tax in this country?

'Four per cent pay inheritance tax, 96 per cent of the population of the UK does not pay inheritance tax. After this becomes a law, 96 per cent of farmers will.

When asked where he got the 96 per cent figure from, he turned to the crowd and said: 'Who here is going to be unaffected by these changes? No one.'

When pressed again where he got the figure from, Clarkson said: 'The same place Rachel Reeves does - from the middle of her head, from the sixth form debating society that she was no doubt a member of which formed her opinions and yours.

Derbyshire then hit back saying 'I am not expressing opinions I am literally asking you questions'.

But Clarkson burst out laughing and said his message to the Government was: 'Please back down... they've got £40billion, I'll tell you where to get the money from, walk into any offices around here, if you don't understand what somebodies' job is, fire them.'

During a 2021 interview Mr Clarkson said that avoiding inheritance tax was 'the critical thing' in his decision to buy land.