Anti-Brexit Clarkson embarrasses the Sun

Clarkson also works for another Rupert Murdoch paper, the Sunday Times, and wrote there at the weekend that while he can be friendly with people who have opposing views, “the one exception” is “people who voted for Brexit”.

He said: “It’s not so bad if they put their hands up and admit they made a mistake. But if I encounter someone who still thinks it was all a brilliant idea, I get so cross my hair catches fire and my teeth start to itch.”

That presumably includes a host of Sun staff. The paper’s ‘The Sun Says’ leader column last week disdained Remainers who “tell us Brexit has had no benefits whatsoever. When scores of them are pointed out, they dismiss them or go strangely silent. It is risible.” Other leaders in recent days have assured readers that “claims of it having failed” were “preposterous”, that “the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson — while not perfect in every area — is working” and that “some benefits are already obvious”.

A slight difference of opinion with Clarkson, then, who wrote in the Sunday Times: “Brexit hasn’t made our lives better in any way that I can see.”

The Sun has recently put Clarkson’s columns for them behind a paywall – meaning readers who still believe in Brexit now have to pay £2 per month for the privilege of reading him tell them that they are deluded.

Also behind the paywall is writer Tony Parsons, who told Radio 5 Live last month that despite having noisily supported Leave in the referendum, “I think Brexit was a mistake… it hasn’t been worth the division, hasn’t been worth the pain, hasn’t been worth the trauma. I also think you should get on with your neighbours if at all possible.”