On Monday 27 April, we reported that Ed Balls had an embarrassing on-air meltdown. This happened after Zack Polanski dared to suggest Balls is a ‘Labour politician’. The fallout of that led to this:
"Now, sources are claiming producers think Ed Balls “lost his cool” during the row and are facing pressure to “distance” the show from him."https://t.co/JvEBu3b6jx
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 29, 2026
When is a politician not a politician?
Monday’s interview with Polanski quickly turned hostile.
Well done to @ZackPolanski for calling out the fact he was being interviewed by a former Lab minister & husband of the current foreign secretary!
Since the start of this year #GMB is produced by @itvnews. How can they think this is tenable?
Oh & Ed took it in good grace (not) pic.twitter.com/SJgDBAzkif
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 27, 2026
As we reported, Polanski said:
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 the Green Party. This is not our manifesto and what you’re doing is an entire stitch up, and people will see it for this.
Mr Balls responded by dramatically asking:
Are you accusing me of being a Labour politician?
He also said:
Yeah. Look, unfortunately, Mr. Polanski, I lost my seat in 2015 and I’ve not been a Labour politician for 10 years.
It’s easy to show how heated Balls got, because his face did this:
Ed Balls does not like being reminded he is married to Yvette Cooper like Trump does not like being reminded he is a paedophile. pic.twitter.com/KlMd3NW6PP
— Dr Iain Darcy
(@doctoriaindarcy) April 27, 2026
Was Balls right to take offence, though?
Let’s examine the facts:
- Ed Balls was a minister under Tony Blair.
- Ed Balls was the shadow chancellor.
- Ed Balls is married to the current foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper.
According to him, though, he’s not a politician.
No, no …
When he stood down as an MP, he magically cut that part of himself out and became an entirely new person.
It would be silly to suggest he’s actually pursuing Labour Party goals through his prominent position in the media.
The problem is ITV may not see it that way. As one insider said:
It’s an easy win for politicians on the show to give the impression Ed is being bias towards them because of who he’s married to.
Ed knows this, but lost his cool yesterday. There have been whispers behind the scenes about how it makes the programme look, but that’s been going on since he interviewed his own wife.
There’s probably never been a better example of how closely entwined our political and media spheres are than when Balls interviewed his wife — the then-home secretary. That interview wracked up 16,000 complaints, but ITV just couldn’t stop playing with their Balls.
Back to the insider, they added:
It’s clear there is growing pressure to distance Ed from the show but bosses keep backing him. They hope the backlash from yesterday calms down.
As we’ve seen, though, it’s pretty much guaranteed the issue will continue to resurface:
Bridget Phillipson: “Ed, you were a senior adviser in govt for many years, you were a secretary of state”
Uh oh. pic.twitter.com/LuQleTB9mQ
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 28, 2026
Officially, GMB are holding on to their Balls. As a spokesperson said:
Ed Balls remains a valued member of our presenting team. Any suggestions otherwise are categorically untrue.
Little ‘L’ labour
It really is a shame what people like Tony Blair, Ed Balls, and Keir Starmer have done to the Labour Party. If the party had remained true to its roots, maybe it would be much harder for GMB to dismiss Balls’s labour.
This is a joke, of course.
If Labour had stayed true to its roots, we wouldn’t have ex-politicians working in the media in the first place.
Featured image via the Canary
By Willem Moore
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