Good Morning Britain viewers were left raging as they accused Ed Balls of being biased. The presenter and his co-host Susanna Reid were joined by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Thursday’s (November 27) instalment of the ITV programme, just one day after she unveiled her controversial plans in the Autumn Budget. But just seconds into the interview, fans couldn’t look past the fact that former Labour politician Ed, 58, was the person chosen to interview the Chancellor, especially since he is married to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Taking to social media with their complaints, one raged: “#GMB Ed Balls should not be interviewing his wife’s colleague who she sat next to on the front bench yesterday; he is an ex-Labour Chancellor and is pro Reeves agenda. He’s biased.” Another agreed: “I like Ed Balls, but he literally just said to Rachel Reeves, great Budget, just shame it was leaked. If that’s not biased broadcasting, I’m not sure what is! #GMB.”
A third weighed in: “Wasn’t your wife sitting next to Reeves yesterday nodding her head in agreement with Reeves? You should NOT be on this program CONFLICT OF INTEREST.”
A fourth raged: “How can, with any credibility, @GMB question the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the wife of one of the presenters was sat next to her on the front bench in the commons yesterday. It’s farcical.”
Another claimed the pair should not be in jobs, another posted: “Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves on #GMB… What do they have in common? They both need sacking!!”
Reeves was left stuttering when Susanna questioned how the British public could trust anything she says, after she broke promises pledged in Labour’s manifesto.
The politician said: “I’m not pretending that what I did yesterday is not asking working people to contribute more, but because of other changes we’ve made around gambling taxes, around higher value properties, means that I was able to keep that to an absolute minimum.”
Susanna hit back: “But you acknowledge that when you make a promise in the manifesto on which millions of people vote, when you make a promise in the House of Commons publicly, you acknowledge we can’t believe those promises because they could be broken.”
When the Chancellor tried to claim that the manifesto said Labour wouldn’t raise the rates of income tax, a furious Susanna interjected: “I apologise for interrupting Chancellor, but that’s not true.”
“In the manifesto, it’s clear, you said, ‘Labour will not increase taxes on working people.’ It couldn’t have been clearer. You didn’t have to put that sentence in, Chancellor. You put that sentence in.”
Reeves tried once again to claim the manifesto specifically said rates, adding: “But I do recognise that we have asked for people to contribute more by freezing those thresholds for an additional three years.”
