Jeremy Clarkson has lived up to his reputation for making incendiary comments after he joked that striking public sector workers should be shot.

Speaking on the BBC's One Show on Wednesday evening, the Top Gear presenter was asked about Wednesday's industrial action that saw over two million workers down tools.

"I'd have them all shot." he said. "I'd take them outside and execute them in front of their families."

He added: "How dare they go on strike when they've got these gilt edge pensions when the rest of us have to work for a living."

Clarkson made the remarks after praising the strikes as "fantastic" as they had emptied London of people.

"Everybody's stayed at home, you could wiz about, restaurants are empty..airports, people streaming through."

He then went on to say that he had to balance his praise for the strike with criticism as "this is the BBC". It was then when he made the execution comments.

While Clarkson was joking, his comments caused an immediate uproar on Twitter, with his name instantly becoming one of the top 'trends' in Britain.

At the start of the broadcast Alex Jones, one of the presenters, said the One Show had wanted a guest who had "balanced uncontroversial opinions who makes great efforts not to offend."

Her co-host Matt Baker added: "And we've got Jeremy Clarkson."

Perhaps they should have seen it coming.