Clarkson for Prime Minister?

Updated 14.05 Wed Aug 20 2008

Keywords: Conservative, Labour, Prime Minister, Downing Street, Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson

Nearly 50,000 people have backed a petition calling for Jeremy Clarkson to be made Prime Minister.

The 55-second clip, posted on Downing Street's YouTube site, thanks everyone who signed the online petition, and says officials have "thought long and hard" about the suggestion.

The 55-second clip, posted on Downing Street's YouTube site, thanks everyone who signed the online petition, and says officials have "thought long and hard" about the suggestion

A Conservative Party spokesman insisted the Government had become "detached" from reality by "spending taxpayers' money on a completely frivolous project".

"This shows how detached the Labour Party has become from the concerns of the British people," he said.+

But a Downing Street spokesman stressed the film was a joke, and had not cost any extra money to make.

He said: "It was a pretty light-hearted petition, so we gave it a light-hearted answer. A member of staff put it together in a spare half-hour."