There have been more than 8,000 complaints to media regulator Ofcom after Ed Balls interviewed his wife, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, live on TV.
The former Labour MP and ex-shadow chancellor, 57, questioned Ms Cooper on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the violent protests in some parts of the UK in the wake of the killing of three young girls in Southport.
On Wednesday Ofcom said the Monday programme attracted 8,201 complaints about Balls questioning Ms Cooper, and an exchange with Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana.
The submissions refer to the period from July 30 to August 5.
Balls asked Ms Cooper whether officers had policed protests by far-right activists and pro-Palestine demonstrators differently.
The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant asked if there had been a “two-tier approach” to policing, and if police have been “softer and more cautious” when policing the Gaza demonstrations, compared with a “tougher” approach over the last week.
Ms Cooper, who has been married to Balls for more than 25 years and has three children with him, said that police have to operate “without fear or favour, whatever the kinds of crimes it is that they face”.
Before the interview, which was led mostly by GMB host Kate Garraway, he said he had “genuine questions” for Ms Cooper, as he has “rarely seen her at all in the last week” because of the disorder on the streets.
Earlier, Labour MP Ms Sultana had an argumentative interview with Garraway and Balls about the rioters, when they interrupted her as she called for political leaders to condemn the protests as “Islamophobic” and “racist”.
Balls said Ms Cooper, Tory leader Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had all criticised the riots, while Garraway asked about the terms Ms Sultana wanted used.
Balls and Garraway both told Ms Sultana that she had to answer questions.
She replied: “I’m going to wait for Kate to finish her question if that’s all right,” and Balls interjected, saying: “If you want to answer the questions, it’s your call.”
Balls continued to interrupt her as she replied to Garraway’s question about why she wanted politicians to call out Islamophobia.
Ms Sultana then asked Balls “if she can finish”, and criticised an article that he wrote about immigration.
Balls, who was a Labour MP from 2005 to 2015, defended a 2010 Guardian opinion column titled “We were wrong to allow so many eastern Europeans into Britain”.
“Well, you’ve moved from attacking Andrew to attacking me,” Balls added, referring to Ms Sultana’s comments about Daily Mail columnist Andrew Pierce.
After the interview, Ms Sultana posted on X, formerly twitter, a clip of her on GMB, and wrote: “The media and political class is complicit in the far right, racist and Islamophobic violence we’re seeing across our country.
“This morning, I experienced the visceral denial of this reality.”
Later on the programme, Garraway began her questioning of Ms Cooper by saying: “Can I ask, because we’ve talked about this a few times in the last few days, like many of our viewers will have done at home since those terrible killings in Southport, there have been identifiable individuals on social media who have been inciting not just riots, but violence.
“They’ve been using racist language. They’ve been using falsehoods about what happened in Southport.
“This is happening on the social media platforms. What can be done, what should be done now by the social media companies and the police and the Government to stop this happening, because it’s been happening for a week?”
ITV declined to comment.
