Earl’s right-hand man brands Ed Sheeran’s eco plans ‘misguided’

FOR a pop star trying to boost their property portfolio and their glowing image in the Press, buying large swathes of land to ‘rewild’ is a no-brainer. So it’s no wonder Ed Sheeran has vowed to buy up as much land as possible in order to ‘return it to nature’.

But I hear he has annoyed the landed gentry, who feel that townie Ed, who lives between Notting Hill and Suffolk, is meddling in matters he knows nothing about.

Jake Fiennes, who runs the Earl and Countess of Leicester’s estate in Norfolk, has gone public, slamming Sheeran as a ‘misguided influencer’ after the Shape Of You singer said he wanted to offset his carbon emissions by buying ‘as much land as possible’ and planting lots of trees.

Sheeran is ‘someone who sits out of those nature circles, isn’t involved in the conversation’ and needs expert advice before he starts rewilding swathes of England, Fiennes tells me.

‘It’s very fashionable. Those people who have sufficient funds and want to do the best thing — they need to take advice on how to do it properly rather than just jumping in.’

The Queen has been known to join the New Year’s Day shoot at the Holkham estate Fiennes manages.

He has offered his skills to Sheeran, saying: ‘I’d love to advise him.’