IPSWICH MP Chris Mole has called for Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson to be sacked after comments he made about lorry drivers murdering prostitutes.

Lizzie Parry

IPSWICH MP Chris Mole has called for Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson to be sacked after comments he made about lorry drivers murdering prostitutes.

The MP has written to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, expressing his disgust at the remarks made by Mr Clarkson on Sunday night's show.

They come hot on the heels of the prank calls row which saw comedian Russell Brand quit his BBC Radio Two show and Jonathan Ross suspended without pay after leaving messages for Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs.

Mr Clarkson, 48, was taking part in a lorry-driving task in the first of the new series of the BBC2 show

He said: “Change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day.”

Mr Mole said he had called for Mr Clarkson to be sacked in light of the comments which he felt referred to Steve Wright, convicted this year of murdering five sex workers in Ipswich in December 2006. Wright had once been a lorry driver.

“The murders in my constituency in 2006 were horrific and the community has spent a lot of time pulling together to respond constructively to such dreadful events,” he said. “For Mr Clarkson to make light of murder in any circumstance must be a dismissible offence.

“To do so with complete disregard for the families of the murdered women should make this a matter on which I would expect you to take immediate action.”

Mr Mole was backed by David Nicholls, of Rayburn Road, Ipswich, who is the uncle of one of Wright's victims, 29-year-old Annette Nicholls.

He said: “It's totally devastating, not just to the girls but to lorry drivers too. That man should be sacked like the other two [Ross and Brand], it's disgraceful.

“I don't know where he's coming from. He knew what he was saying, he said it more than once.

“I feel sorry for the lorry drivers, now they're all tarred as murderers.”

A spokesman for the BBC, said: “The vast majority of Top Gear viewers have clear expectations of Jeremy Clarkson's long-established and frequently provocative on-screen persona.

“This particular reference was used to comically exaggerate and make ridiculous an unfair urban myth about the world of lorry driving, and was not intended to cause offence.”