Top Gear co-host Jeremy Clarkson has said that the man who plays the Stig is "sacked" and admitted he was "hurt" that Ben Collins decided to unmask himself as the show's anonymous white-suited driver.

Clarkson said that "Top Gear is damaged but not out", adding that he has spent the last three weeks "doing nothing but work out what to do instead", after it emerged that Collins was planning to out himself as the Stig in his autobiography.

The BBC failed last week to have an injunction granted to stop Collins, the racing driver who has played the Stig since 2003, from publishing his book.

Clarkson said he felt "a bit hurt really". "It was such a shock. It was horrible actually because I liked him and he came round to my house and had drinks and all that time he was writing a book," he added, in a video interview published online today by Oxfordshire-based community news service WitneyTV.

"He's just decided he'd rather be ... put it this way he's history as far as we are concerned. He's sacked," said Clarkson, who was interviewed at a charity auction at Chipping Norton Lido.

"I've spent the last three weeks doing nothing but trying work out what out what an earth to do instead. You may remember a film called Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko said greed was good and greed works. It doesn't, if you're watching this children, greed is bad," he added.

Clarkson hinted that the Stig as a character may no longer continue on Top Gear, saying: "Trust me, we have many, many thousands of people queueing up to be whatever it is we create."

Collins is the second person to play the Stig who has revealed his identity. Previously another racing driver, Perry McCarthy, played a black-suited Stig but was replaced by Collins as the white Stig in 2003 after McCarthy also revealed his identity in a book.

When asked who might replace Collins, Clarkson said: "Richard can't drive and James is too slow. We'll get somebody, don't you worry. Top Gear is damaged but not out. I'd love to have [David] Cameron do it."

The prime minister is the local MP for Witney.

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