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As it happenedended

Jeremy Clarkson news: Ex-Top Gear host avoids police probe over The Sun Meghan Markle article

Column received record number of Ipso complaints as politicians demand answers from The Sun

Tom Murray,Peony Hirwani,Louis Chilton,Inga Parkel
Thursday 22 December 2022 12:40 EST
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Jeremy Clarkson will remain the host on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? “at the moment”, ITV boss Kevin Lygo has confirmed.

Lygo criticised the 62-year-old presenter’s comments about Meghan Markle, describing his tirade as “awful”.

In an op-ed published by The Sun on Friday (16 December), Clarkson wrote that he dreamt of the day Markle would be made to parade naked through Britain while the crowd chanted “shame” and threw “excrement” at her.

Clarkson claimed that “everyone who’s my age thinks the same way”.

The Sun has now removed Clarkson’s comment piece from its website. “In light of Jeremy Clarkson’s tweet he has asked us to take last week’s column down,” the page now reads.

More than 60 cross-party MPs have written to The Sun’s editor to demand an apology and “action taken” against Clarkson. The SNP’s shadow culture minister also called for Clarkson to be banned from TV altogether.

Ipso confirmed on Tuesday 20 December that it had received over 17,500 complaints about the presenter’s column, more than the total it received in 2021.

SNP politician John Nicolson has shared some of the abusive messages he’s received over the past day after calling for ITV to get rid of Clarkson.

He’s not the only person to have reportedly suffered online abuse over the subject – Carol Vorderman said she received “a lot of abuse” after criticising the ex-Top Gear host.

Read more:

Carol Vorderman says she’s ‘received a lot of abuse’ for criticising Jeremy Clarkson

Broadcaster led backlash against the former ‘Top Gear’ presenter over his comments about the Duchess of Sussex

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 15:19

A reminder of what exactly it was Nicolson said.

“Following grotesque comments made about the First Minster and The Duchess of Sussex, I do not believe Jeremy Clarkson should be allowed back on our screens. I’ve written to the Chief Executive of ITV.”

Read the full story:

MP says Jeremy Clarkson should be banned from TV after ‘grotesque’ comments

‘I do not believe that Mr Clarkson should appear on our television screens again,’ MP wrote

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 15:49

Going to re-share some of the main stories over the past day or so.

Firstly, the news that Clarkson’s story had broken the record for the number of complaints lodged to Ipso, the independent press standards organisation.

Read more:

Jeremy Clarkson’s Meghan article breaks Ipso complaints record

Jeremy Clarkson's column where he expressed hatred for the Duchess of Sussex has broken Ipso records as the most complained about article ever. The Independent Press Standards Organisation received more than 17,500 complaints - more than the total amount they received in 2021. In his piece for The Sun, the former Top Gear presenter said he dreamed of the day Meghan would be paraded “naked” through “every town in Britain” while crowds threw “lumps of excrement at her.” Mr Clarkson has since said he is "horrified" by the "hurt" caused, pledging he "shall be more careful in future." Sign up for our newsletters.

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 16:30

Piers Morgan weighed in on the issue with what many might characterise as a predictable response.

Read more:

Piers Morgan weighs in on Jeremy Clarkson’s Meghan Markle column

‘I’m just asking where the same anger is towards the lies/smears hurled at the Royal Family,’ presenter wrote

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 17:00

The boss of ITV confirmed that Clarkson would not be removed from his post as presenter of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

He did, however, condemn Clarkson’s article in strong terms.

Read more:

Jeremy Clarkson to remain Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host for ‘the moment’

The presenter hit headlines over the weekend for comments he made about Meghan Markle in a column for The Sun

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 17:30

More than 60 MPs have written to The Sun complaining about the article.

Read more:

MPs complain to The Sun about ‘hateful’ Jeremy Clarkson Meghan Markle article

The cross-party group said the former Top Gear presenter’s ‘hateful’ article had contributed to an ‘unacceptable climate of hatred and violence’

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 18:00

Police have confirmed that Clarkson is not going to face investigation over the article, despite calls from some critics to probe it as hate speech.

Read more:

Jeremy Clarkson won’t face police probe over Meghan column, Met chief says

Thousands of people have complained about the article, which critics branded racist and misognynistic

Louis Chilton21 December 2022 18:30

James O’Brien says Clarkson’s ‘gotta go’ on new podcast episode

James O’Brien thinks Clarkson’s “gotta go” after his “disgusting” op-ed against Markle.

Despite not normally buying into “that kind of response to off-air behaviour having on-air consequences”, the radio presenter said he believes “society demands standards”.

Therefore, “I don’t think they can keep him on the job”, O’Brien said on Wednesday’s (21 December) episode of his “The Whole Show” podcast.

“Pretty much everybody (except the weirdest people on the planet) agrees that it was absolutely disgusting.”

Inga Parkel21 December 2022 19:00

Writer Joyce Carol Oates says Clarkson should be taken by ‘his word'

Joyce Carol Oates, the writer who penned 2000 historical fiction novel Blonde, about Marilyn Monroe, believe we should take Clarkson “at his word”.

“When an individual like Jeremy Clarkson admits publicly to a ‘cellular hatred’ of a Black woman,” she wrote on Twitter, “we should take him at his word: racism is primitive, irrational, sub-human & sub-ethical emotional violence directed against someone perceived as ‘other’.”

Inga Parkel21 December 2022 19:30

Emily Clarkson called out media’s ‘inhumane’ treatment of Markle days before her father’s op-ed

Days before Jeremy Clarkson’s op-ed was published on 16 December, his daughter Emily had condemned the media’s “inhumane” treatment of Markle.

On 14 December, alongside a screenshot of a publication blurb which read, “Harry and Meghan release yet another Netflix trailer for their show waging war on the Palace ahead of new three episodes dropping TOMORROW”, Emily wrote a lengthy caption.

“My steadfast defence of them has never been of the individuals I don’t know, rather of two people who have, objectively, been treated APPALLINGLY,” she said.

“It’s bullying on a mass scale,” Emily continued. “I feel DEEP discomfort with our lack of humanity towards these two people.”

Following the publication of Clarkson’s column, she spoke out against her father, standing against “everything my father wrote”.

Read more

Emily Clarkson Jeremy Clarkson
Emily Clarkson Jeremy Clarkson (Instagram, Getty)

‘I remain standing in support of those that are targeted with online hatred,’ said podcast host

Inga Parkel21 December 2022 20:10

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