ITV’s chief executive has defended allowing Ed Balls to interview his wife, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, but said it will not happen again.
Dame Carolyn McCall said the broadcaster got “very short notice” that the senior politician would be coming on Good Morning Britain on the day her spouse grilled her about rioting across the UK.
She said the interview on 5 August, which attracted thousands of complaints, was “fair and impartial” but the set up would not be repeated.
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Speaking at the Royal Television Society (RTS) London Conference, the ITV boss said: “It was a very, very tricky morning, there was a national emergency almost being called, and so we got very short notice that the home secretary was coming on the show.
“No one has picked up on the fact that Ofcom are not pursuing these complaints, because they believe it’s fair, balanced and impartial.
“So would we do it again? No. Was it impartial, fair and balanced? And did they behave professionally? Yes.”
Ofcom ruled on Tuesday that it would not be investigating more than 8,000 complaints about Mr Balls questioning Ms Cooper, with some complaints also relating to an exchange with Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana.
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The media regulator said the nature of the married couple’s relationship was made clear twice, a range of views about Labour’s handling of the riots were included, and the vast majority of the interview was conducted by co-presenter Kate Garraway.
However, while it will not be pursuing the matter further, Ofcom said it issued guidance “warning ITV to take particular care over the compliance of such interviews in future”.
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Mr Balls, a former Labour minister, is now a regular GMB presenter.
He and Ms Cooper have been married for more than 25 years and have three children together.
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Critics said it was “baffling” he was allowed to interview his spouse, given the requirement for broadcasters to be impartial in their reporting.
Before the interview, the former shadow chancellor 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.
Pic: Reuters
Ofcom also said it would not be pursuing complaints about a separate interview on the same show with Ms Sultana, who previously sat as a Labour MP before she had the whip suspended in July.
She was interrupted several times while discussing why the riots should have been called Islamophobic specifically, rather than just racist.
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 the robust line of questioning would be consistent with regular viewers’ expectations of interviews with political figures on this programme.”
