Jeremy Clarkson has said it had been a "terrible" year for farming due to the hot weather, at a surprise appearance at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

He was greeted by loud applause from the Tory faithful, but joked that "a lot of people have come dressed as seats, I notice, around the edges there".

In a question and answer session alongside land agent Charlie Ireland, he also criticised the economic conditions faced by business owners, asking: "Why would anybody set up a business in this country right now?"

Clarkson - who also hosts ITV's Who Wants to be a Millionaire - was introduced to the stage by the Conservative shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins.

Asked what kind of year he had had on the farm, Clarkson said: "We worked really hard all year and we ended up with, I think I'm right in saying, three ounces of hen food.

"It was an absolute disaster on the farming side but, I mean, luckily we've got other projects going on now.

"But the farming is very, very difficult – very, very difficult at the moment."

He added: "I'm very fortunate that I do have other income streams and newspaper columns, but if you're an ordinary farmer, it's not just the weather.

"Remember, it's as Charlie was saying, the attacks come from everywhere – whether it's Iran or Ukraine or taxes or energy costs – whatever it might be, it's just relentless."

Former chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the government would levy inheritance tax on family farms in the party's first budget.

But the plan was watered down last year following the farmers' campaign and pressure from some of Labour's rural MPs.

Responding to Clarkson's comments, a government source said: "We are working with farmers to strengthen domestic food production and make supply chains more resilient as we build a stronger and more profitable farming sector together."

Clarkson also joked about comments by Labour MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter who said the Britain of country pubs and black Labradors was a "nostalgic" false memory.

He joked that he was a "socialist" because he drinks lager and has two fox red Labradors, after it was reported Riddell-Carpenter told a Labour conference fringe event she feared the far right deciding what the vision of rural areas is.

Riddell-Carpenter had said: "It'll be that warm ale, a black Labrador by your feet in a pub that doesn't exist, and with symbolism of fox hunting all around them. It'll be a very far-right nostalgic vision of Britain that we don't want to have, (that) never really existed."

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