TV Network Stands By ‘Balanced, Fair’ Interview of British Interior Minister by her own Husband

18/07/2024 Home Secretary Yvette Cooper attends the Royal Reception at the European Politi
Rav Soodi / Home Office
Oliver JJ Lane

A British television network has been forced into defending its output after it decided to have a senior member of the government in the midst of a nationally sensitive time take soft-ball questions from her own husband on breakfast television.

Breitbart London noted on Monday the bizarre spectacle of the UK’s Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Yvette Cooper being interviewed by her own husband Ed Balls, the former Labour Secretary of State, who is now a television anchor for ITV.

The interaction took place on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, which is co-hosted by former politician Ed Balls and Kate Garraway, providing a level of redundancy that could have allowed Balls to sit out the interview while his colleague took over questioning his wife as a representative for the government.

The relationship was disclosed shortly before the interview began, but not during the discussion. Apart from an oblique reference in one question — “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” — the couple otherwise addressed each other as strangers.

ITV said they had satisfied themselves that their output that morning after nearly a week of major protests and riots across the country was “balanced, fair and duly impartial”.

On Monday, Cooper was asked two questions by her husband. The first was inviting her to make comment on the use of social media to incite violence, a key talking point for the government who appear to be preparing the ground for a forthcoming crackdown on speech. Cooper

“things that are criminal offline are also criminal online” and that social media companies “have to take much greater responsibility for what is happening on their platforms, which frankly they make huge amounts of money from. And therefore they need to take much greater responsibility, we’re going to be pursuing that”.

The second question was asking whether critics of the government accusing the state of “two-tier policing” have a point, which Cooper essentially declined to meaningfully answer, going on her own tangent instead to criticise those who make such assertions, unchallenged by the hosts.

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