Ed Balls seemed to vanish during this morning’s episode of Good Morning Britain.
Susanna Reid was left to conduct one of the interviews solo today, when Yvette Cooper made an appearance on the show. Ed Balls is married to the Home Secretary, but he did not interview her to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
When Yvette came on the show today to discuss the Prime Minister’s plan to increase police presence on the streets and ensure every community has a named and contactable police officer, Ed was noticeably absent from the interview.
There was no mention of Ed’s absence from the interview, despite him having hosted the show all week including today alongside his co-host Susanna and participating in every other segment on today’s show.
One viewer commented: “Love how they’ve cut Ed Balls totally off our screens. Awkward! ! #gmb,” while another remarked: “Susanna Reid interviews the home secretary, who happens to be married to her co-host on the program today #GMB.”
“If Ed Balls can’t interview the Home Secretary because of perceived bias, what’s the difference with him interviewing a Labour Minister? #GMB,” a third wrote, with a fourth sharing their opinion on social media, stating: “Do NOT have #yvetteCooper on while #EdBalls is on. Can’t they see how ludicrous this is? #gmb @GMB.”
Back in August, there were over 16,000 complaints after Ed interviewed his wife alongside Kate Garraway on the breakfast show.
Dame Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, reflected on a challenging broadcast moment, saying: “It was a very, very tricky morning; there was a national emergency almost being called, and so we got very short notice that the home secretary was coming on the show. She was doing a whole round [of interviews], but it was unexpected, and we believe that it was fair and impartial.”
“And actually Ofcom just ruled, but amazingly no-one has picked up on the fact that Ofcom are not pursuing these complaints because they believe it’s fair, balanced and impartial.”
She continued: “So would we do it again? No. Was it impartial, fair, and balanced? And did they behave professionally? Yes. I mean, he asked her a few questions, but I think Kate was leading on that, wasn’t she? And so I do think you’ve just got to say, if Ofcom have looked at it and they’re not pursuing this any further because they thought it was fair balanced and impartial, you know, that’s it.”
Subsequently, Ed took a step back from an interview with Yvette and has not been seen on screen with her since.
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am.