Jeremy Clarkson has backed Green Party candidate Sarah Wakefield ahead of the Makerfield by-election, throwing his name behind a contest that has already become a talking point before voters go to the polls on June 18. His intervention lands just as the campaign tightens around a race that could matter beyond one seat.
Wakefield, 38, was a last-minute replacement for the party’s previous candidate, who stepped down after accusations of antisemitism. Clarkson used his Sunday Times column to support her, even while calling her a “loony” and taking aim at a charity report tied to her work. The result is an endorsement that reads less like simple praise than a sharp, public argument about who should be trusted in a contest now drawing attention far wider than Makerfield.
The by-election was called after Josh Simons stood down amid an ongoing leadership crisis in his party, and the seat has become one more test of the political mood in a constituency where opinion polls show Reform UK facing a stiff challenge. There is also speculation that Andy Burnham could seek election to Parliament if he succeeds in the contest, adding another layer of interest to a race already under a spotlight.
Wakefield is the executive director of Eating Better, the charity Clarkson singled out in his column when he said she leads an organisation that, as he put it, thinks farming is racist. He said most of the charity’s policies seem reasonable, including making vegetarian dishes tasty and encouraging farmers to focus on profit, but the mixed message underscored the friction at the heart of his endorsement. He is backing the Green Party candidate while attacking the case around her at the same time.
That contradiction may matter as much as the backing itself. Clarkson has a huge public profile, but the Makerfield result will be decided by voters, not commentary, and the clearest next marker is the vote on June 18. If his intervention moves anything, it will be measured there; if it does not, it will still have turned Wakefield into a candidate defined in part by a celebrity endorsement that came wrapped in insult.
