𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

If you ever have the misfortune of watching Good Morning Britain, you will have seen Zack Polanski have a torrid time of it today.

The Green Party’s leader faced a grilling from the second the cameras went live, on everything from his past work as a hypnotherapist – for which he has apologised repeatedly – and some of his party’s more eccentric policy proposals: 55mph speed limits, legalising drugs, and the rest of the progressive wish list that makes most voters wince.

He came across as rattled and defensive, and having watched the interview, it was easy to see why.

Mr Polanski tried to explain several times that his party’s policies are decided by members and are currently under review now that party membership has ballooned.

It was not a good performance, and I doubt many will shed a tear at a politician squirming on our TV sets.

But there is something deeply unsavoury about just who was doing the grilling.

Ed Balls is not Andrew Neil, and he is certainly not Jeremy Paxman. He is the husband of Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, and a former Labour Cabinet minister who served under Gordon Brown and one of the worst Prime Ministers in our history, Tony Blair.

The conflict of interest is not just obvious; it is simply staggering.

Mr Polanski, to his defence, spotted the glaringly obvious air cover the presenter was giving to his former party, at whose heels the Greens now snap.

I have no issue with politicians becoming TV presenters, but I do take issue with them pretending to be impartial.

The Green leader spotted this and hit back, pointing out exactly who was interrogating him. He was right to do so.

At least Mr Polanski is honest about what he is, a Green politician with policies decided by party members. What is Mr Balls’s excuse for pretending to be a neutral broadcaster while his wife runs one of the great offices of state?

This is not the first time Mr Balls has shown his colours.

When the Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis barged onto the set and derailed an interview with Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, Mr Balls sat there and did nothing to intervene, allowing the obvious staged ambush to unfold.

I have yet to see the same treatment afforded to a Labour minister.

Perhaps they should be ambushed by a small business owner, struggling to pay their bills under this Government’s ruinous taxes?

Or maybe the Education Secretary could be ambushed by a student, crushed under the weight of student loan debt?

Ed Balls himself could be subjected to an ambush by any one of the countless millions of people who found their lives upended by the financial crash of 2008, one of his ruinously disastrous Blairite accomplices enabled.

The double standard is glaring.

Mr Polanski should be scrutinised for his political positions, yes, but a beatdown on an opposing party’s leader, and then what amounted to a hissy fit from Mr Balls for being reminded on air of his extremely close connections to the current Government, is not what voters need.

I have no love for Green policies. I think 55mph speed limits are nonsense. I think legalising drugs under the current system of healthcare provision is foolish. And I think the solutions Mr Polanski’s party proposes to the problems of inequality we all face will, in fact, make matters worse.

But I have far less time for Ed Balls defenestrating politicians, interrupting them constantly, and reserving that treatment primarily for the ones he evidently dislikes.

This morning’s sorry affair shows two people.

One is a hypnotherapist who admits his past mistakes. The other is a hypocrite who will not acknowledge his present ones.

And British viewers deserve better than both.