Balls was a Labour MP between 2005 and 2015, serving as the secretary of state for children, schools and families from 2007 to 2010, as well as shadow chancellor from 2011 to 2015. He is also married to current Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

During the interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Polanski questioned why someone with previous experience in Labour’s Cabinet and with ongoing links to Starmer’s party is “allowed” to interview the leader of the Greens .

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He also criticised the line of questioning in the interview, with Polanski saying there’s been “no questions on our manifesto” from Balls or his co-host Susanna Reid.

“Do you know what I’m enjoying? That the fact that a Labour politician who’s married to a senior Labour minister is allowed to ask questions of the leader of the Green Party,” Polanski said. “This is not our manifesto …”

Balls then cut in to ask if he was “accusing me of being a Labour politician”.

Elsewhere during the show, Reid asked about previous stories regarding Polanski previously working as a hypnotist.

She asked when he changed his mind about what he could achieve through hypnosis, referring to reports that he had claimed he could enlarge women’s breasts, to which Polanski said that he “never believed in it” and that he has apologised multiple times.

Well done to @ZackPolanski for calling out the fact he was being interviewed by a former Lab minister & husband of the current foreign secretary!

Since the start of this year #GMB is produced by @itvnews. How can they think this is tenable?

Oh & Ed took it in good grace (not) pic.twitter.com/SJgDBAzkif

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 27, 2026

Polanski said: “Your audience will notice that I’m talking about taxing multimillionaires and billionaires, taking wealth away from powerful people and putting it back in our communities, and GMB, 10 days before a local election, rather than asking me about our policies … you want to just do shock-jock tactics.

“And by the way, this is why people hate the media.”

Reid said: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable Zack Polanski to ask you about your integrity, about your beliefs, about what you say.”

Polanski added that speaking to the public, people feel like political discourse has been “eroded”, in part by the media focusing on gossip rather than the everyday issues impacting their lives.

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Balls went on to explain his interview approach, saying: “If we have Keir Starmer, or Kemi Badenoch, or Nigel Farage on our programme, we ask them questions about their policies and how they would change the country if they were to be in government.”

He then listed a number of various topics he has asked about, including taxation, immigration, drug law and land ownership, saying these are “not illegitimate questions”, suggesting that he answers them to show that he is a “serious politician”.

Polanski hit back at this, saying that his party is in the process of campaigning for a series of local elections, and the focus should be on what Green councillors and the Green party will be working on at the local level and what is in the party’s local election manifesto.

In a final elevator pitch, he was given the time to share what he thinks is the most important message voters needed to hear, to which he said: “I want to end rip off Britain”, focusing on “putting money back into people’s pockets” and reducing the gap between the highest and lowest earners in Britain.

“You can annoy GMB by voting Green”, he concluded.