Equality boss dismisses row over Top Gear’s Mexican slur

The Equality and Human Rights Commission chairman went on to say Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond were “brilliant talents” as he reacted to anger over the hosts’ comments about “feckless” and “lazy” Mexicans.

Mr Phillips refused to condemn the show’s presenters as he said “getting into a ruck with Clarkson” would only add to the programme’s carefully sculpted notoriety.

In a speech on equality, Mr Phillips said the commission did not need to take action. “They have created a set of on-screen cartoon characters which from my brief experience of meeting Clarkson are nothing like the real people,” he said. “But they do the job they’re supposed to do – get millions of people to watch a bunch of middle-aged blokes mucking about with cars.”

The Mexican ambassador complained to the BBC about “outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults” made on the show after Hammond joked that Mexican cars were like Mexicans “lazy, feckless, flatulent”.

However Mr Phillips praised Sky Sports for its conduct during the Andy Gray and Richard Keys sexism row. He said the incident illustrated why employers or organisations did not need political or bureaucratic interventions to show them they had made a mistake.