Phil Spencer honoured parents who died in car crash with lunch trip to pub they were travelling to

Phil Spencer and his family are “all going to the pub for lunch” where his parents were driving to when their car toppled off a bridge and into a river, his co-presenter Kirstie Allsopp has said.

Spencer’s parents, Anne and David, died on their farm in Littlebourne, Kent, while on their way to have lunch in August.

Kirstie Allsopp, who co-presents Channel 4 property show Location, Location, Location, told an episode of the BBC’s Newscast podcast on Saturday: “(Phil’s) got a lovely, lovely family and they’re very, very close and they’re all together.

“In fact, his sister was married yesterday, which they went ahead with and today they’re all going to the pub for lunch. The same pub that his parents were on the way to when they died.

“He’s very stoical and pragmatic, and he feels very strongly that it was the right thing that his parents went together.”

Spencer, 53, previously told his followers on Instagram that it is “blessing” that his parents “went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one”.

He also said the accident is “what God had planned for them” so the couple could stay together after six decades of marriage and four children.

“Although they were both on extremely good form in the days before (hence the sudden idea to go out to lunch), mum’s Parkinson’s and Dad’s dementia had been worsening and the long term future was set to be a challenge,” Spencer said.

“There were no physical injuries and I very much doubt they would have even fought it – they would have held hands under the water and quietly slipped away.”

Kent Fire and Rescue service was called at 12.38pm on Friday August 18 and spent 90 minutes at the scene.