Jeremy Clarkson to remain Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host – follow latest

ITV boss Kevin Lygo said Clarkson’s comments about Meghan Markle were “awful” but “at the moment” the broadcaster plans to keep him as host of the game show.

In a recent column for The Sun newspaper, Clarkson, 62, said he feels “hate” for Meghan and dreams of seeing her publicly humiliated.

My colleague Peony Hirwani reports:

The number of complaints made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) about Jeremy Clarkson‘s The Sun newspaper column about the Duchess of Sussex has risen to more than 20,800 as of 5pm on Tuesday.

A statement from the regulator said: “We will follow our usual processes to examine the complaints we have received. This will take longer than usual because of the volume of complaints.”

Earlier in the day the piece became Ipso’s most complained about article.

It’s been a few days now since Jeremy Clarkson created a media storm when he made disparaging comments about Meghan Markle in his column for The Sun.

Clarkson wrote that he despises the duchess “on a cellular level” and dreams of people throwing “excrement” at her in the street.

He also said he hated Markle, “not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West”, but on a “cellular level”.

In a follow-up to the controversy shared Monday (19 December), Clarkson wrote: “I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly… I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.”

In a tweet that went viral, Vorderman wrote: “NO Jeremy Clarkson. Not on any level, in any circumstance, is it OK to write this stuff about any woman and absolutely NO to ‘everyone who’s my age thinks the same’.”

She continued: “No no no. We absolutely do NOT think the same. Listen to the noise Jeremy. The crowds are chanting ‘shame on YOU.’”

At a Broadcasting Press Guild event in London on Tuesday, ITV boss Kevin Lygo condemned Clarkson’s comments about the Duchess of Sussex but said there are no plans to replace him as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? “at the moment”.

“I would say what he writes in a newspaper column… We have no control over what he says,” Lygo told journalists.

“… So it’s not quite in our wheelhouse but I don’t know what he was thinking when he wrote that. It was awful.”

Responding to John Nicolson MP’s letter to the Chief Executive of ITV, one reader shared his response from West Mercia Police after he reported Clarkson to them.

In their reply, the police department wrote that Clarkson’s column does not relate to a “hate crime”.

In a seemingly laudatory post referencing Emily Clarkson’s recent actions against her father Jeremy, British-Nigerian writer Jason Okundaye wrote: “People don’t hold you to who your parents are unless you decide to be insufferable!

He added: “Nigella Lawson’s father was literally Thatcher’s chancellor yet she’s one of the nation’s most universally beloved women, wherever you are on the political compass.”

Many users responded to the second part stunned, unaware of the familial connection between Nigella Lawson and former MP Nigel Lawson, who served as chancellor from 1981 to 1989 to former controversial Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

In Tuesday’s Letters to the Editor, The Independent readers have refuted Jeremy Clarkson’s claims “everyone who’s my age” feels the same as him about Meghan Markle.

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to [email protected]

Scottish politician Hannah Bardell, who serves as a Member of Parliament for Livingston, will join Good Morning Britain presenters Adil Ray and Charlotte Hawkins tomorrow (21 December) morning to “chat all things Jeremy Clarkson & misogyny”.

Bardell shared the announcement on Twitter, asking those who could to “tune in”.

In a following post, she commented on Caroline Flack’s mother’s recent interview in which she shared an emotional warning about the “harmful” impact of “untrue” press coverage.

“This is utterly heartbreaking,” Bardell wrote, “but so brave and spot on of Caroline Flack’s mum.”

The MP then questioned: “How did we get to this place, that women like Caroline are literally hounded to death by some in the media and tabloid press. It’s sickening.”

Singer Stella Parton, the younger sister of country darling Dolly Parton, has thanked Jeremy Clarkson for his recent controversial column.

“I want to thank Jeremy Clarkson,” she began on Twitter, “for proving once and for all that Meghan and Harry were always telling the truth about everything”.

Parton concluded by wishing Meghan and Harry a Merry Christmas, before adding: “ Wasn’t that brilliant?”