Jeremy Clarkson has hit out at Andy Burnham amid his “worst year ever” for farming.
The former Top Gear presenter has come up against a slew of challenges at his 1,000 acre Diddly Squat Farm, from relentless heatwaves to a TB outbreak among his cattle.
And Clarkson - who battled cancer last year - claimed the new Prime Minister’s decision to make Dame Angela Eagle the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has only “worsened” the situation.
Writing in his column, the 66-year-old begged the government to do something over the farming sector’s financial struggles.
“Action is needed now because farmers have reached the point where it is quite simply impossible to make money from growing food,” he said in The Sun.
“This year, I have 200 acres on my farm where we grew nothing at all. We knew that if we planted it with wheat or barley, we would definitely make a loss.”
Clarkson said he predicts the situation will deteriorate further for farmers under Burnham’s leadership.
“The only big worry for me right now – and I’m talking with my farming hat on – is that he’s put someone called Angela Eagle in charge of the countryside,” he wrote. “And so far, her only real claim to fame is that David Cameron once told her to ‘calm down, dear’.
“I’ve done some digging, though, and it seems she has never worked on a farm and has never run any kind of business. So putting her in charge of the countryside is like putting Alan Carr in charge of the Army,” he wrote. “Or me in charge of the diplomatic service. And that’s no good.”
Eagle was previously the the Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs under Keir Starmer.
Other previous Government posts include Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions under Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Minister of State for Pensions and Ageing Society for Gordon Brown.
Clarkson has been battling a slew of health woes alongside his farming struggles.
He is currently in remission after battling an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer last year. He was diagnosed in May 2025 following a routine blood test which uncovered high levels of a prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
The news emerged last month in the fifth series of Clarkson's Farm.
Clarkson described facing “a bewildering amount of choices” in his cancer treatment and ultimately chose high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).
This method involves a probe being placed in a patient's rear to destroy cancer cells.
His follow-up PSA test showed his cancer was in remission. However, he will still require regular blood tests as up to 40 per cent of prostate cancer patients experience a recurrence of the disease.
The former Grand Tour star said he plans to stay optimistic, with hopes to be among the 60 per cent of patients who don't get the cancer a second time.
He said that he felt like “the world’s luckiest man” after cheating death.
