BBC Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson: 'Gordon Brown is a One-eyed Idiot'

Scottish politicians have urged the BBC to take Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson off air after he called prime minister Gordon Brown a "one-eyed Scottish idiot".

Clarkson made the comment while he was in Australia hosting Top Gear Live, a stage version of the TV show. The BBC presenter also accused Brown of "telling us everything is fine" around the financial crisis in contrast to other world leaders.

Lord Foulkes, a former Labour Scottish minister, said he was "outraged" at the presenter's remarks. Foulkes said: "If the BBC banned Jonathan Ross for what he said and they have taken Carol Thatcher off air for something she said in private, then something should be done about Clarkson."

"He has insulted Gordon Brown three times over accusing him of being a liar, having a go at him for having a physical handicap and for his nationality.

"It is an absolute outrage of the worst kind. Disabled people will be up in arms about it, Scottish people will be angry and it should concern all of us that the prime minister has been accused of lying."

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, joined the chorus of disapprobal, saying the comments were "totally inappropriate".

"Everyone should be upset about someone making jokes about someone else's partial blindness and nationality, but knowing Jeremy Clarkson I don't hold out a lot of hope that he will be apologetic," he said.

Clarkson, speaking at a press conference in Sydney to promote his show, compared Mr Brown to Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, after Rudd had just addressed the country on the global financial crisis.

"It's the first time I've ever seen a world leader [Rudd] admit we really are in deep shit," Clarkson was reported as saying in the Australian newspaper.

"He genuinely looked terrified. Poor man, he's actually seen the books. We have this one-eyed Scottish idiot who keeps telling us everything's fine and he's saved the world and we know he's lying, but he's smooth at telling us."

Clarkson, whose Sunday Times columns are syndicated in the Weekend Australian, was referring to Brown, who lost his sight in one eye during after an accident playing rugby as a teenager.

Scottish MPs have today called for Clarkson to be taken off the air until he apologised for his comments about Brown.

This is not the first time the presenter has courted controversy. In November last year he opened the latest series of Top Gear by suggesting that truck drivers only cared about fuel prices and murdering prostitutes. Drawing hundreds of complaints.

Clarkson and his Top Gear co-hosts were also condemned by their own employers in July for "glamorising the misuse of alcohol" by drinking at the wheel last July.

The BBC Trust's editorial complaints unit said a special edition of the motoring show, aired the previous July, in which Clarkson and co-host James May attempted to drive a pickup truck to the magnetic north pole, broke its guidelines.

In the programme, Clarkson and May were shown drinking gin and tonics as they raced Richard Hammond, who was using a sled pulled by a team of dogs, to reach the pole.

Clarkson's latest indiscretion follows hot on the heels of the storm surrounding BBC One Show presenter Carol Thatcher being thrown off the programme for referring to male tennis player as a "golliwog" while off-air.

BBC has received more than 2,200 complaints over its decision to drop the former prime minister's daughter.--guardian.co.uk