This Morning hosts Ben Shepard and Cat Deeley paused the ITV show on Wednesday to address a "appalling" incident involving fellow presenter Tom Swarbrick's family. Tom is a former Downing Street adviser and a well-known broadcaster who presents on LBC and regularly appears on ITV's This Morning to discuss current affairs. Before moving on to the day's top stories, Tom appeared alongside broadcaster Kay Burley to describe an upsetting event that happened to his wife, Alex, and daughter, Lucy, over the weekend.
Ben introduced the discussion by saying: "Aside from headlines happening today Tom, we wanted to talk about what happened to your wife just at the start of the weekend."
Tom explained that his wife had been driving their daughter through a narrow rural lane in Kent when she stopped to let another driver through. A man then pulled up alongside her, gestured for her to lower her window, shouted a "volley of expletives" and spat phlegm into her face.
A horrified Cat asked: "Why, though, Tom?" He replied that there appeared to be no reason for the aggression. After speaking about the incident on his LBC radio show, a listener who had been in the car behind came forward to provide key evidence to police.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Tom said: "Our daughter was absolutely terrified. She is eight." He continued: "I have to say, Kent Police have been absolutely phenomenal… they've taken it incredibly seriously because it is very serious.
"To be honest with you, I don't think this would have happened had I been driving the car. Or if Ben had been driving the car. It happened because it was a woman, apparently on her own, in the car. So for my wife, Alex, for my daughter Lucy, who was left absolutely terrified by this – who is still waking up in the middle of the night terrified by it – I want that man to feel the fear that he inspired in her."
"I think most decent guys, who are dads, husbands and sons, want this guy to be found too because it's absolutely totally unacceptable that someone would feel like they could do this to a woman because they're a woman and think they can get away with it. Not to go all Liam Neeson about it, but we are coming for him and we are going to find him and we are going to meet our consequences."
Kent Police have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
At the end of the segment, Tom thanked the programme for allowing him to speak, saying: "It's so degrading, so humiliating, so appalling, and it's directed at women. Because they are women."
