Nigella Lawson's husband Charles Saatchi has called an alleged row which is being investigated by police 'a playful tiff'.

It follows the emergence of photographs which appear to show the art collector with his hand around Lawson's neck as the pair sat on the terrace of a restaurant on June 9th.

Lawson, 53, the daughter of former chancellor Lord Lawson, was reportedly seen weeping following the episode outside Scott's in Mayfair, central London.

Speaking to the London Evening Standard, Saatchi said: "About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella’s neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point.

"There was no grip, it was a playful tiff.

"The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.

"We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled."

Lawson's spokesperson has said that there will not be any comment on Saatchi's explanation but did confirm that she "isn't at the family home."

Scotland Yard said that officers from the Community Safety Unit are "carrying out preliminary inquiries" after the photographs appeared in the Sunday People newspaper.

A spokesman said "Inquiries are in hand to establish the facts in order to assess whether an investigation is necessary."

They added that initial inquiries are at a very early stage and they will not discuss who might be spoken to in relation to the claims made in the newspaper.

Police confirmed that they had not received a complaint of assault from Lawson or anyone else.

The Community Safety Unit is designed to tackle hate crime, and the types of incidents they investigate include domestic violence, homophobia and racism.

Both are said to be regular visitors to the upmarket restaurant in Mount Street, with one report claiming that the couple were there on Saturday, less than a week after the alleged row.

A spokesperson for Scott's said: "The staff and management at Scott's are aware of the reports in the media and would like to make it clear that they did not see the alleged incident nor were they alerted to it at the time."

Lawson wed Saatchi, 70, who made his name in advertising, in 2003.

She has two children, Cosima and Bruno, from her marriage to journalist John Diamond, who died of throat cancer in 2001.

She became a household name in 1998 with her first cookery book, How To Eat.