[Stockland Hillman]

Ed Balls hasn’t been an MP for a long time. I don’t care for the bloke, but it’s absolutely fine for him to interview current Labour politicians. He has a new career as a tv presenter, that’s literally his job now.

The issue with GB News is their use of CURRENT members of parliament. It shouldn’t be happening, and I say that as someone who quite likes the channel.

Ed Balls is still a labour party member,  his wife is shadow home secretary, so dealing with policing,  crime, immigration issues raises conflict of interest concerns (as does sitting MPs on GBNEWS)

People have objections to opinion content on TV,  particularly in news-like programming. They object to Nigel Farage (like Ed Balls, a former politician) Piers Morgan,  Patrick Crysties, Darren Grimes, Dan Wootton on new channels - not just sitting MPs 

If anything,  with use of ITV News branding (which is unequivocally  PSB regulated news content in stand alone shows) and the lack of clear demarcation between GMBs top 'news' story interview and the actual news bulletins, it's probably less clear to the viewer that the  word's coming out of the mouths of Martin Lewis and Suzanne Reed aren't news in the same way as Mary Nightingales are.

My point is far from being unique right wing fox news esq format from dastardly offshore shadowy billionaires, that caught a Ofcom off guard with tricks and grey areas, the hybrid talk/opinion/news formats is embeded in the core of UK broadcasting regulation, and used by our largest commercial broadcaster.