Jeremy Clarkson has launched a blistering attack on critics of a Home Office booklet telling asylum seekers that rape, sexual harassment and violence against women are illegal in Britain, accusing opponents of the guidance of making an absurd argument.
The nine-page document, titled Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: a guide for asylum seekers, sets out basic rules covering rape, sexual consent, gender equality, child abuse and behaviour in public.
It warns that breaking British law can result in police action, the loss of asylum support or damage to an asylum claim.
Among its guidance are warnings that child rape remains illegal “even if they look older” or “it is allowed in another country”. The booklet also states that female genital mutilation is prohibited in Britain.
Another section explains that women are free to work, study and travel without requiring permission from men, while arrivals are told that whistling, kissing noises and sexual comments directed at strangers are unacceptable.
The intervention has triggered an unusually broad political backlash.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for removals rather than what he characterised as re-education.
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf described the booklet as “a disgrace”, arguing that its existence demonstrated the Government “know that they are a menace”.
But criticism has also come from the Left.
Green Party peer Baroness Jenny Jones called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to apologise, accusing ministers of “feeding right-wing tropes”.
Louise Calvey, executive director of the Asylum Matters charity, said: “By singling out people seeking sanctuary as in particular need of basic instruction not to commit abuse or sexual violence, the government is fuelling hostility, suspicion and racism, instead of doing any real work to promote understanding or safety.”
That response appears to have particularly irritated Clarkson.
Writing in The Sun, the former Top Gear presenter said: “As you may have heard, the Home Office has produced a pamphlet, which will be given to Channel immigrants arriving in the UK, saying that rape is illegal and that you can’t beat your wife.”
Clarkson then singled out Calvey, describing her as “a spokesman-woman with extremely left-wing hair”.
He continued: “(Ms Calvey) said this week that by telling an immigrant not to rape anyone, ‘the Government is fuelling hostility, suspicion and racism’.”
His response was characteristically blunt.
“Give me strength,” the Clarkson’s Farm star concluded.
The row has also exposed a wider political argument over whether the guidance represents a sensible attempt to communicate British law or an admission that authorities believe some new arrivals may not understand basic legal and social norms.
On GB News, presenter Stephen Dixon put the latter argument directly to Labour MP Georgia Gould.
“This leaflet actually says, no, you had a point, there is a reason to be concerned, because some of these people do not understand the culture into which they have now moved,” he told the Minister of State for School Standards.
Gould defended the Government’s approach and insisted that Labour had been clear about the consequences of breaking British law.
“I think since Labour came into power, we have been really clear that anyone who breaks the law of this country is not welcome in this country, and we have taken action to make it easier to deport people who break the law here,” she said.
She also pointed to what she described as “positive figures”, claiming the Government had returned “80,000 people who don’t have the right to be in this country, the highest since 2010.”
The controversy leaves ministers defending a policy that was ostensibly designed to settle the most basic questions of behaviour, while simultaneously facing attacks from both sides of the political spectrum.
For the Government, the awkward question is why a guide explaining that rape, child abuse and violence against women are crimes has become a political flashpoint in its own right.
For Clarkson, the answer appears considerably simpler.
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