News Digest

Clarkson tells fans ‘protest never works’ suggesting he has been sacked

Jeremy Clarkson (pictured) has suggested the outpouring of support after he was suspended as Top Gear presenter is unlikely to get him his job back. Writing in his regular column in UK newspaper The Sun he declared “protest never works” following an altercation with one of the show’s producers while filming the show two weeks ago. A petition calling for the presenter’s reinstatement on Top Gear, which gathered almost one million signatures, was delivered by tank to BBC headquarters in London on Friday.

Oh, you can be a big and important plankton but that doesn’t make a jot of difference if a whale has decided to eat you up. A million other plankton dress up and wave banners but Mr Whale won’t even notice.

Jeremy Clarkson

He also appeared to be back on provocative form on Thursday night after declaring the BBC had sacked him. Speaking at a fundraising event in London , Clarkson joked with the audience as he said: “I don’t know when I did my last-ever lap of the Top Gear test track before the f***ing b******s sacked me.” The BBC has not commented but said on Thursday afternoon that director general Tony Hall is to be given a dossier on the matter next week and will subsequently make a decision. Earlier, a BBC executive suggested Clarkson’s co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond had been offered the chance to finish this season’s Top Gear shows but had refused to do so.