Probe over ‘Top Gear’ use of word ‘pikey’

Top Gear could be heading for more trouble after communications watchdog Ofcom confirmed it was investigating a complaint over the use of the word “pikey”.

The Traveller Movement complained after a scene in which Jeremy Clarkson held a placard with the words “Pikey’s Peak” while Richard Hammond drove a car up a mountain.

It comes after a similar complaint lodged with the BBC which was not upheld.

The BBC Trust ruling in March cleared Clarkson of racism and its editorial standards committee (ESC) concluded the word had been used to mean “cheap”, rather than as a term of racist or ethnic abuse.

At the time, the Traveller Movement said they were “horrified” by the “BBC’s green-lighting of the use of the word”.