ITV says Balls’ interview with Cooper’s wife was honest

The chief executive of ITV has defended the interview Ed Balls gave to his wife, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, on Good Morning Britain but said he would not repeat it.

Dame Carolyn McCall spoke out after media watchdog Ofcom announced it would not be investigating more than 16,000 complaints about an episode of the ITV morning show broadcast on 5 August.

This Morning, Balls and co-presenter Kate Garraway interviewed Cooper about the government’s response to violent rioting in parts of the UK.

“It was a very, very difficult morning, a state of emergency was almost declared, so we were told very quickly that the Home Secretary would be on the programme,” Dame Carolyn said.

“Fair and impartial”

“She did a whole round (of interviews) but she wasn’t expecting that. We thought it was fair and impartial,” she told the Royal Television Society conference in London on Tuesday.

“And in fact Ofcom has just made a ruling but, amazingly, no one has picked up on the fact that Ofcom is not dealing with these complaints because they believe they are fair, impartial and objective.

“Would we do it again? No. Was it impartial, fair and balanced? And were they professional? Yes.

“I mean, he asked her a few questions, but I think Kate was suggesting that, wasn’t she? And that’s why I think it’s just fair to say that if Ofcom has looked at it and they’re not going to pursue it any further because they think it’s fair and balanced and impartial, then, you know, that’s it.”

Balls, a former Labour minister, is now a regular presenter on GMB; Cooper, his wife, was appointed Home Secretary after the July general election. They have been married since 1998.

Ofcom said it thoroughly considered complaints about conflict of interest.

But a spokesman said: “Given that their relationship was explained twice, that a range of views on Labour’s handling of the riots were covered throughout the programme, and given that the vast majority of the interview was conducted by co-presenter Kate Garraway, we will not be pursuing the subject further.”

Ofcom added that it had issued guidance warning ITV to “take particular care in future to ensure that such interviews comply with regulations to ensure they are impartial”.

Some of the complaints about the episode related to the way Balls and Garraway questioned Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana in a separate interview.

In response, Ofcom said: “In our view, Ms Sultana was given ample opportunity to express her views and respond to the questions put to her, while we consider that a robust line of questioning would have been in keeping with what ordinary viewers would expect from interviews with political figures on this programme.”

In the article, Sultana, who was previously a Labour MP before being suspended in July, said the government should have described the riots as Islamophobic and racist, and questioned an article Balls had previously written on immigration.

Writing later on XShe said: “The sneering contempt of ‘journalists’ will never stop me from condemning racism and Islamophobic hatred.”