Jeremy Clarkson has pulled no punches with his opinions on the ongoing Lord Peter Mandelson saga, branding the 72-year-old a “parasite”.
His remarks have come after Lord Mandelson was placed under investigation by the Met Police for his links to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
He faces accusations of leaking market-sensitive documents from Downing Street to Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis. The Met has described its investigation as one “into misconduct in public office offences.”
On Friday, officers were spotted outside his £7.6million Regent’s Park property, and a second search was conducted at another property connected to Lord Mandelson in Wiltshire.
Jeremy Clarkson has slammed Lord Mandelson
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GETTYScotland Yard confirmed on Saturday that its investigation into Lord Mandelson will be “complex” and require “a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis”.
It also confirmed enquiries remained ongoing and that the 72-year-old had not been arrested. “It will take some time to do this work comprehensively, and we will not be providing a running commentary,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart said.
Pressure has mounted on the prime minister’s position over his decision to include Lord Mandelson in his cabinet despite being aware of his friendship with the paedophile financier.
Now, among the voices sharing their thoughts on the saga is Mr Clarkson, who, in a Top Gear episode from 2010, made a disparaging remark about Lord Mandelson that has since been shared far and wide on social media.
Police searched Lord Mandelson’s homes this week
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PAMr Clarkson said to the camera in the Top Gear instalment: “The only sound better than the Audi R8 V10 is the sound of Peter Mandelson being attacked by bears.”
An X user asked Mr Clarkson exactly what he meant by the remark, to which the presenter replied: “He was a wrong ‘un. I could see that even then.”
Writing in his latest newspaper column, Mr Clarkson has expanded further on exactly why he never warmed to the former minister.
He began by reminiscing about a party at which he and Mr Mandelson arrived before any of their fellow guests. However, the former Grand Tour star refused to engage in small talk.
Mr Clarkson proceeded to explain he “always hated” Mr Mandelson. “I hated the way he spent his life preaching socialism while living on the back of the rich and famous, like a parasite,” Mr Clarkson explained.
“I also hated his moustache. Most of all, though, I hated the way some halfwit luvvie in New Labour would give him a job.
“He’d then do something that was completely inappropriate and have to go. And then some other halfwit luvvie would give him another job.”
Turning his attention to the “not very bright” current prime minister, Mr Clarkson expressed his bewilderment that even Mr Starmer failed to see Mr Mandelson was “an oily, smug, conceited wrong’un.”
Jeremy Clarkson slammed Mandelson on X
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Mr Clarkson then reeled off the allegations levelled at Mr Mandelson, including the suggestion he was “shipping state secrets” to Epstein.
But Mr Clarkson finished his column with a warning. “Has no one ever seen Fatal Attraction? You think the baddie is down, but they aren’t. They’re waiting for you to turn their back and then they rear up again,” he mused.
“That’s what I’m still expecting Mandelson to do, leap out of the bathwater with a knife. It’s what he does. Comes back.”
The Clarkson’s Farm star signed off in The Sun: “Which is why, after Starmer has gone and Rayner has taken over, you shouldn’t be at all surprised if she springs him from the nick and makes him Chancellor of the Exchequer.”
Jeremy Clarkson is no stranger to voicing his opinions on politics
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AMAZONMr Clarkson’s brutal verdict on Lord Mandelson comes on the same day former Prime Minister Gordon Brown took aim at Mr Starmer for his handling of the scandal.
Mr Brown conceded that he regretted appointing Lord Mandelson in 2008, and said that the alleged leaking of sensitive material was “a betrayal of everything we stand for as a country” and “a financial crime”.
“I have to take personal responsibility for appointing Mandelson to his ministerial role in 2008. I greatly regret this appointment,” Mr Brown told the BBC.
He described Mr Starmer as “a man of integrity” who “wants to do the right things”, but admitted that he had “been too slow to do the right thing”.
“But he must do the right things now,” he said, urging the Prime Minister to act decisively,” the former PM added.
Lord Mandelson has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
He stated: “I was never culpable or complicit in his crime. Like everyone else, I learned the actual truth about him after his death.”
The former Ambassador to the United States said he had “relied on assurances of his innocence that turned out later to be horrendously false”.