ITV bosses have denied reports that they are under pressure to remove Ed Balls from Good Morning Britain following a heated exchange with Green Party leader Zack Polanski that triggered significant online backlash.
The controversy stems from a clip in which Balls, a former Labour shadow chancellor, clashed with Polanski during Monday's (27 April) broadcast. While co-hosting with Susanna Reid, Balls became visibly agitated when Polanski referred to him as a "Labour politician." The video quickly went viral, with many viewers accusing Balls of behaving like a "bully" after he took exception to Polanski's questioning of whether a former Labour politician should be grilling the Green Party leader.
According to a source who spoke to The Sun, ITV executives were reportedly worried about the backlash and the potential for future guests to claim bias. However, an ITV spokesperson firmly denied the allegations, stating: "Ed Balls remains a valued member of our presenting team. Any suggestions otherwise are categorically untrue." The Mirror also contacted ITV for comment.
During the interview, Polanski challenged Balls by saying: "Do you know what I'm enjoying? The fact that a Labour politician who's married to a senior Labour minister is allowed to ask questions of a leader of a Green Party." Balls responded by asking if Polanski was "accusing" him of being a Labour politician. When Polanski insisted it was not an accusation, Balls interrupted, saying: "You said I was a Labour politician. Did you mean that or not?" He added: "I haven't been a Labour minister for 20 years. Unfortunately, Mr Polanski, I lost my seat in 2015, and I've not been a Labour politician for 10 years. Luckily, you're a Green politician, you are the party leader, and you seem to be using a rather elaborate device of making accusations against me to avoid answering the questions."
Later in the interview, Balls attempted to question Polanski about his former career as a hypnotherapist, but Polanski refused to answer, accusing the host of employing "shock-jock tactics." Polanski said: "Your audience will notice that I'm talking about taxing multimillionaires and billionaires, taking wealth away from powerful people and putting it back in our communities, and GMB, 10 days before a local election, rather than asking me about our policies … you want to just do shock-jock tactics."
Balls then accused Polanski of hypocrisy: "Hang on a sec, Mr Polanski. You accused me of being a Labour cabinet minister 16 years ago. And when Susanna asked you about something you said 10 years ago, you said it's illegitimate to ask about things you stood for 10 years ago. The double standard is a bit shocking." Polanski countered that the situations were "not the same," arguing that someone "pretending to be a journalist who's interrogating the leader of a political party, having a very strong association with a Labour government who are currently in power, is very different to asking me about a story when I wasn't a politician 13 years ago."
Viewers took to social media to express their discontent. One wrote: "Ed Balls and Susanna Reid really did come across like a couple of classroom bullies this morning. They did an excellent job of proving Zack Polanski to be the only adult in the room." Another commented: "I wonder if the GMB producers read the comments under these videos on social media. They only seem to be going one way. Maybe the charismatic ace journalist Ed Balls doesn't cut it with the British public the way they imagine?!"
