‘It’s asking for trouble’: Why Ed Balls is in hot water at ITV after his controversial GMB showdown – as insiders tell KATIE HIND about heated crisis talks… and why his wife Yvette Cooper is ‘unimpressed’ with him

In the boardrooms of ITV’s luxury headquarters in London, bosses have been suffering all week over the ‘Ed problem’.

Ed Balls, Labour’s left-wing former shadow chancellor and presenter of Good Morning Britain, has caused a new headache in the show’s hierarchy.

Sources at the broadcaster tell me that senior bosses have become so desperate that they have brought in an outside crisis communications firm to help them weather a politically sensitive storm created by Balls – a rare step indeed.

The TV presenter is in trouble following an interview with a Jewish antisemitism campaigner last Monday, which resulted in the presenter being accused of antisemitism and sparked a raft of complaints. I was told that bosses – who nicknamed him ‘Red Ed’ in the corridors of ITV’s White City HQ – were summoned upstairs to be told his questioning was ‘not in the right tone’.

The GMB presenter was interviewing Jewish author Dov Forman following last week’s anti-Semitic arson attack on a Jewish charity’s ambulance fleet. During the live broadcast, Balls asked Forman, who was standing at the scene in Golders Green, north London, with emergency vehicles behind him, if he would condemn similar intolerance towards Muslim people.

Balls said: ‘And Dov, when you saw last week that Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy singled out the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, for praying with a Muslim group in Trafalgar Square and said that was wrong and should not have happened. Isn’t it this kind of intolerance and divisiveness that is causing problems in the Jewish community right now? Do you condemn this too?’

According to Forman, 22, there was no equivalence between the arson attack and the criticism of public prayer.

Balls asked Dov Forman, standing at the scene of an anti-Semitic attack, if he would condemn similar intolerance towards Muslims.

The anti-Semitism advocate backtracked, insisting that the issue under discussion should focus on anti-Semitism rather than broader political disagreements. Cue the complaints and ITV soon issued an apology.

Balls, whose wife is Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, was humiliated by bosses and warned to ‘stop being a politician and focus on being a TV presenter’. Sources tell me this incident infuriated ITV’s News director Andrew Dagnell, who was already watching Balls ‘like a hawk’ to ensure there was no political bias in his interviews. He was so concerned by the presenter’s comments that he held a meeting with Karen Newman, vice president of the Board of Jewish Representatives, as well as other Jewish community leaders. Representatives from ITV’s Jewish staff were also present following the complaints. The meeting was said to be ‘both heated and constructive’.

A source in the room said: ‘My impression is that Ed forgot he was interviewing Forman about the Golders Green attack and momentarily placed him alongside politicians who last week called for a ban on Muslim Ramadan prayers. If you are a presenter, you cannot show any political bias. “He’s asking for trouble.”

A source said: ‘Ed admitted his interview did not have the right tone, there was an atmosphere of intolerance towards minority religions and Ed admitted he conducted the interview incompetently.’

But the source added: ‘To be fair to Ed, this was breaking news and Dov had only been booked that morning so it wasn’t long before the presenters arrived [his co-host Susanna Reid included] to get everything into their heads’.

‘Instead of simply talking to a young Jewish man and finding out his thoughts and concerns about the latest disgusting anti-Semitic attack to shake the community, it was as if Ed had other issues he wanted to convey to Forman.’

An ITV source confirmed Balls had been warned “at the highest level” that he must now stop using his GMB role as a political hobbyhorse.

Meanwhile, sources say Balls’ role in the series caused friction in the Balls/Cooper family. I was told that his wife of 27 years was ‘unimpressed’ by her husband’s performance last week because any controversy around him inevitably rubbed off on her. ‘The last thing Yvette wants is for questions to be raised about her husband’s alleged political biases while presenting GMB,’ says my informant.

Another well-placed source said the power couple were ‘genuinely sorry’ about the outrage her interview had caused, adding: ‘Both Yvette and Ed are generally regarded as really good friends of the Jewish community and are often seen together at social events.

‘The last thing either of them wants to do is harm a community they admire and which is now truly threatened by rising anti-Semitism.’

As an explanation for Balls’ combative questioning, it was stated that Forman worked as an advisor to the UK Reform politician Robert Jenrick; It’s a position that could send shivers down the spine of the former Labor MP.

Unsurprisingly, Jenrick immediately described the interview as “extremely unpleasant” and said Balls was “absolutely clueless”.

This isn’t the first controversy Balls has faced since joining the ITV show. It sparked complaints and accusations of bias when he was allowed to interview his wife on the show in 2024. The Southport riots had just broken out and, as the then Home Secretary, Cooper had a lot to answer for – but viewers were less than impressed that the lead investigator was her husband. It was later decided that the program would never interview him again.

He was also accused of ‘bullying’ or talking over guests during his clashes with Reform UK figures such as Richard Tice and Nigel Farage; viewers branded his approach aggressive and unprofessional.

Further criticism followed interviews and political debates with figures from the Labor Party; Some accused him of protecting or supporting his wife’s political position and facilitating Labor figures such as Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

But all that aside, one show insider said: ‘Those in charge enjoy the political dynamic Ed brings and the different dimension he brings to the show.’

They also point out that he is much more than a former MP, because he used to be a journalist (chief economics writer for the Financial Times).

‘But best of all, the viewing figures are great for GMB, so it’s doing something right. Bosses hope he doesn’t do anything like this again.’