More Than 8,000 Complain To UK’s Ofcom Over ‘Good Morning Britain’ Husband-Wife Interview With Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper

ITV‘s controversial husband-wife political interview has attracted more than 8,000 complaints to Ofcom, putting it second on the 2024 list.

Social media took off when Good Morning Britain host Ed Balls gave his wife Yvette Cooper, the Labour Home Secretary, a grilling on ITV earlier this week. Given that GB News has fallen foul of Ofcom’s rules over the thorny issue of politicians interviewing politicians from the same party, the incident generated headlines. ITV has already said it stands by the decision and believes the interview was “fair and impartial.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We are assessing the complaints against our broadcasting rules but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate.”

Balls, who used to be a Labour MP and Chancellor but lost his seat in 2015 and has since appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, was interviewing Cooper about the UK riots and the governing Labour Party’s response. It drew accusations of a conflict of interest, given that the pair have been married for 26 years.

The situation is different to GB News in that Balls is no longer a politician. GB News mainly came under fire for shows such as Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil, when the husband-and-wife presenting duo were both still MPs. It is one of a number that has been rapped by Ofcom.

The incident is the second most complained about incident of 2024. That current title goes to an interview on the now-defunct TalkTV between firebrand presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer and Dr Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, which attracted 17,000.

Following Monday’s episode, an ITV spokesperson said: “Following a weekend of rioting and national unrest, GMB featured a range of interviews and discussion around this national emergency on today’s programme. [These] included James Cleverly, Shadow Home Secretary and Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary. We are satisfied that these interviews were balanced, fair and duly impartial.”

The episode has also attracted ire because of the way in which Balls and co-host Kate Garraway interviewed another Labour MP, Zarah Sultana, who said the government should describe the riots as Islamophobic as well as racist, and challenged Balls on an article he had previously written about immigration.