The Sun’s editor, Victoria Newton, received a letter from UK’s MPs asking to get an apology and take action against Jeremy Clarkson for a column where he said Meghan Markle should be paraded through the streets naked.
Clarkson’s remark was published in a column Friday in the wake of Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary. The host of motoring show “The Grand Tour” on Amazon wrote in tabloid newspaper The Sun that he hated the former Meghan Markle “on a cellular level” and he was “dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.
A letter, co-ordinated by the Conservative chair of the women and equalities select committee, Caroline Nokes, was signed by Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, Green and SNP MPs, including the Conservative chair of the Treasury select committee, Harriett Baldwin, Labour’s Harriet Harman and Caroline Lucas of the Green party.
The letter stated that the Duchess of Sussex received credible threats to her life and that Clarkson contributed to an “unacceptable climate of hatred and violence.”
In their letter, Nokes and the other MPs told Newton they “condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent misogynist language … This sort of language has no place in our country and it is unacceptable it was allowed to be published in a mainstream newspaper.”
They add: “We cannot allow this type of behaviour to go unchecked any longer. We welcome the Sun’s retraction of the article and we now demand action is taken against Mr Clarkson and an unreserved apology to Ms Markle immediately.”
After widespread criticism, The Sun withdrew the column at the request of Clarkson. A statement from him promising to be more careful in future was criticised for not including an apology.
Clarkson issued a statement on Monday, saying: “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.”