Oxford News
Jeremy Clarkson endorses ‘loony’ Green Party candidate
The star of Clarkson’s Farm has weighed in on the upcoming by election for the Makerfield constituency, called when Josh Simons stood down.
The Labour MP resigned amid the ongoing leadership crisis in his party and so that Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, could seek election for Parliament.
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If Mr Burnham succeeds it is widely assumed he will challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership, although according to opinion polls he is facing a stiff challenge in the constituency from Reform UK, with the vote to take place on June 18.
Now Mr Clarkson has made his thoughts known and, perhaps surprisingly, he has backed the Green candidate Sarah Wakefield.
Ms Wakefield was a list minute replacement for the party’s previous candidate – who stepped down following accusations of antisemitism – and she has been criticised for a report published by the charity she is a director of.
In his The Sunday Times column Mr Clarkson said: “Sarah Wakefield is the executive director of the charity Eating Better, which, we are told, thinks farming is racist.”
As such, he referred to as a “loony”.
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However, he also defended the Green politician, noting that the report was largely written by a different person, the inclusive moment lead.
The owner of 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm near Chadlington added that most of the charity’s policies seem reasonable, including making vegetarian dishes tasty and for farmers to focus on profit.
Criticising the way the by election was brought about, he then appeared to endorse her in the hope she might split the ‘left-wing’ vote so that Mr Burnham would lose.
“Go, Sarah. Go,” he said.
The Prime Minister is prepared to “explore every option” to keep Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers in jail, a Government source told the Telegraph on Friday.
The Government has so far resisted pressure to exempt the two killers from its early release scheme, which starts in October in a bid to tackle prison overcrowding.
Mr Burnham said earlier this week he had “pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing” by excluding sentences for “rape, serious child sex offences and other grooming offences” from eligibility.
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Some 5,000 people are expected to be released early under sentencing changes, down from 6,000 after the exemptions announced as part of an urgent review of the scheme.
But under current plans, Cole and Bowers remain eligible to be freed halfway through their 13-year sentences after they were convicted of manslaughter in 2020 following Pc Harper’s death in 2019.
Downing Street has been contacted for comment about Mr Burnham reportedly weighing up options to block their release.
PC Harper was 28 when he sustained fatal injuries while responding to a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in August 2019.
He died after getting caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and dragged down a country road as three teenage suspects fled the scene of the burglary.
The driver of the vehicle, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and would not be eligible for release.
Dame Mary Berry has lived in Henley‑on‑Thames, Oxfordshire, with her husband Paul Hunnings since 2019.
She joined the BBC show as a judge alongside Paul Hollywood when it launched back in 2010 and stayed until 2016, before the programme moved to Channel 4.
Now, the 91‑year‑old food writer and presenter has been discussing work on the garden at her Henley home during an appearance on the Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange podcast.
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Dame Mary explained that she and Mr Hunnings had decided to buy larger yew trees rather than wait years for smaller plants to grow.
The former Great British Bake Off judge said: “Evergreens, a yew is, we put hedges in a yew. And obviously you should buy evergreens like a yew. I suppose about two foot high and wait.”
Dame Mary then made clear why waiting was not a realistic option for her.
“Well, I’ll be in heaven then, so we had to buy them fairly big, I suppose they were about four foot because we needed them to get to the top of the tennis court netting,” she said.
The TV star and her husband moved to Henley to be closer to family after downsizing from their former home in Buckinghamshire.
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In a previous interview, Dame Mary said of her decision to move: “We didn’t want to move too far from our friends, and Henley is only a 35-minute drive.”
She added: “The town is beautiful. It has the river, and there are lots of interesting walks to do. As the years go, we will be able to walk into the town, and it will be nice to not have to get the car out.”
Dame Mary remains a familiar face on television and has continued to share her love of gardening as well as cooking.
Speaking at the Hay Festival earlier this year, she encouraged young people to “work hard and follow your dreams”.
Her garden in Henley includes a greenhouse, pond, beds and roses, while she has said she grows produce including red onions, lettuce and carrots.
Fire services were dispatched to Cowley Road just before 6pm yesterday evening to tackle the blaze.
Photos show the fire behind residential gardens, with black smoke billowing high.
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At least two fire engines were dispatched to the scene with multiple firefighters working to put out the blaze.
Photos sent to this newspaper show fire engines moving into position and the blaze itself seen from behind a garden.
It’s currently not known how the fire started or its exact location.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has been contacted for more information.
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