This Morning fans tuned in to see hosts Eamonn Holmes, 58, and Ruth Langsford, 58, discuss a viral video that has caused a social media outcry.
It comes after a clip was posted online showed a parking ticket attendant from Euro Parking Services issuing an emergency service vehicle with a ticket.
Caught on camera by witness Ian French, the van was seen parked on double yellow lines.
However, as the discussion got underway, both Eamonn and Ruth “took no prisoners” and were very quick to question Will Hurley from the International Parking Community on their code of conduct, how they would have reacted in this situation and why emergency services aren’t exempt from the rules.
Ruth began: “The very fact, he was taking the photograph – now hear me out – he was even thinking about issuing a paramedic with a parking ticket, it’s a paramedic, who he didn’t know if they were on call or not.
And Eamonn interrupted: “What you should do is lay down the law and change the rules for this, so you’re not going to, you’re going to cover your backside by saying ‘well every case has to be considered on its merits and we’ll look at this’ why don’t you just change the law for emergency services?
Will explained: “The difficulty is, if you just make it so emergency services can park anywhere, it would be abused the other way potentially.”
But Ruth wasn’t stopping there and interjected: “Can you honestly sit and say, you believe a paramedic or police office would do that? ‘I know I’m off duty now but i’ll stop off at the supermarket do my weekly shopping., come on.”
And Eamonn quickly intervened and asked: “Could they just not be exempt?”
However Will responded: “We will take away the experience from this, what we have to do is ensure there are reasonable rules.”
Eamonn ended the segment with: “What we are taking away with us from this is that you’re not going to change anything, are you?”
Taking to Twitter, This Morning viewers commented on the debate, with some praising the This Morning hosts questioning skills.
One tweeted: “Well done Eamonn and Ruth giving this guy a grilling #ThisMorning.”
“Eamonn Holmes is going IN on this parking community guy #ThisMorning,” another remarked.
A third saiid: “@EamonnHolmes and @RuthieeL are taking no prisoners today on @thismorning. Love it! #ThisMorning.”
However, some viewers disagreed and thought that nobody should be exempt from receiving a parking fine if they are parking illegally.
One said: “@thismorning I actually agree with the parking charges guy about it possibly being used for personal reasons if emergency services can park anywhere.”
Another added: “I get that @EamonnHolmes is trying to prove a point but the level of harshness to the parking guy is slightly uncomfortable. #this morning.”
The attendant in question during this debate does not work for Tesco where he was on duty, instead for Birmingham-based firm Euro Parking Services.
In a statement via Manchester Evening News, Adrian Nesbitt, HR manager for the firm said: “It is a mistake on our part, we will contact the ambulance service to offer our apologies and put together a full training package to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“The ambulance service is very important to our community, we don’t want to hinder them and we’re very saddened by the situation.”
This Morning airs weekdays at 10:30am on ITV.
