Jeremy Clarkson sparked a backlash by accusing parents of “whingeing” over free school meal parcels.
The Grand Tour host acknowledged there had been some “shameless profiteering” from companies putting together inadequate hampers for disadvantaged pupils at home during lockdown.
But he said families in poverty would only fritter away vouchers on “fags and scratchcards”
Clarkson, 60, boasts a £44million fortune and owns a 1,000-acre Cotswolds farm where he sells honey at £9.25 a jar.
He wrote in his newspaper column: “On the food front, I think [Marcus Rashford’s] fight is noble and well judged, and I agree that some shameless profiteering is going on.
Jeremy Clarkson has been slammed for comments he made in his column regarding free school meals (Image: Getty Images)
“But I am fed up to the back teeth of the whingeing this story unleashed.
“We live in a country where children from less well-off families are entitled to free lunches when they are at home. Yippee.
“But instead of celebrating that fact, and concentrating on making sure the food they get is not half an ounce of mould and a dead dog, I heard a woman on the news the other day demanding that she be given £30 to provide lunch for her child.
“Thirty quid? Where’s she going to take him? Fortnum & Mason?”
Jeremy Clarkson said he’s ‘fed up to the back teeth of the whingeing’ (Image: WireImage)
He went on to blast those who would prefer to receive supermarket vouchers than an actual food hamper, suggesting it was so “she could exchange it at the supermarket for fags and scratch cards”.
Clarkson’s comments sparked fury on Twitter with one user writing he showed “a lack of understanding of what many families hit with unemployment during this pandemic are facing”.
Another referred to Clarkson’s 2015 axing from BBC motors show Top Gear, branding him a “millionaire who punches people if he gets sandwiches instead of steak”.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
