Clarkson's '40-minute rant' at producer

JEREMY CLARKSON punched his Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon in the face after a 40minute rant in which he swore and referred to him as a “lazy Irish”, witnesses have claimed.

The presenter of Top Gear, who has been suspended pending an internal BBC investigation into his conduct at a hotel in Yorkshire during filming, is said to have threatened to have Mr Tymon sacked during the row over food.

A guest at the hotel where the BBC team was staying said Clarkson was furious to find no hot meal available when he and his co-presenters, James May and Richard Hammond, returned from a nearby pub.

In one of the first independent accounts to emerge of the fracas, Sue Ward, from Leeds, claimed the presenter complained it was “ridiculous there was nothing to eat” and that the producer had not done his job properly.

Another source said Clarkson called Mr Tymon, 36, a “lazy Irish c---” before splitting his lip with a punch that left him with blood running down his face. Mr Tymon is understood to have been treated at the A&E department at Friarage Hospital in Northallerton and is said to have also suffered dizziness.

The producer, who has received abuse and threats on social media since Clarkson’s suspension, has consulted lawyers over the incident.

It is understood that Clarkson will firmly deny using xenophobic language or punching Tymon when he appears before the BBC inquiry being conducted by the head of BBC Scotland, Ken MacQuarrie. He has hinted that even if he escapes sacking or some other form of disciplinary action he may still quit the BBC show.

In his column in The Sun yesterday, he did not comment directly on the incident – save to thank the thousands of people who had signed a petition in his support — but alluded to his fate by writing about the decline of dinosaurs. He said: “The day must come when you have to wave goodbye to the big monsters and move on.”