Jeremy Clarkson has hit out at “fake news” (Image: PA)
was left astonished after a fan account shared a quote about the UK needing to “look after our own”. He quickly took to social media to confirm that it had been falsely attributed to him, as he’d never said it.
Opinion was then divided between those who urged him to take ownership of the “great” quote and those who rolled their eyes in horror at the “fake news”.
The quote, which was shared with almost 100,000 followers and is thought to have quickly gone viral, read: “We need to look after our own first.” It added: “It’s not selfish; it’s just the way things should be. You can’t take care of others if you haven’t taken care of your own people.”
However, Jeremy then took to X (also known as Twitter) himself to clarify to his own eight million followers that the words had never left his mouth. “To be clear. That quote is made up. I never said it,” he declared in no uncertain terms.
X then added a community note onto the original post to advise other readers that it wasn’t accurate. However, one follower shot back: “It seems like a fair statement – perhaps you should say it!!”
:
Thoughts on this statement?
— ClarksonsFarm (@ClarksonsFarm1)
Another insisted: “Shame. It’s a great quote. Just say it then it will be true.”
A third chimed in to suggest: “I say claim it anyway, it makes sense. Also, love Who Wants To Be a Millionaire being back on (contestants last night were brilliant!)”
However, some took the opportunity to hit out in despair at the spread of fake news.
“I hate this. People dragging you into a political agenda,” one fan lamented.
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“I don’t know if you agree with what was said or not, that’s not important to me. I just wouldn’t want you to be caught up in a controversy you didn’t ask for.”
Though he never made the comment, he has previously been vocal about his dislike of Labour policies – to the point of banning from his new pub, The Farmer’s Dog.
He also supported those with concerns about immigration in a column for The Sun last month.
“I’m surrounded by farmers and plasterers and brickies and butchers and all I hear, all day long, is that there’s too much immigration, but if they say this out loud, or if they go on a march, they are told by the London elite that they are far-right extremists or racist thugs,” he wrote.
“For the most part, they’re not. But Sir Starmer doesn’t seem to have grasped this.”
Meanwhile, when he mistakenly referred to Israeli hostages as “sausages”.