Good Morning Britain: Ed Balls interviews wife Yvette Cooper

Balls and Cooper have been married since 1998, and have three children.

Earlier in the programme, Balls told Garraway he “had not seen [Cooper] at all in the last week”, amid the fallout of the riots.

“When these events happen, and if you’re the prime minister or the home secretary, it becomes pretty much 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it’s tough.”

When Garraway replied: “So you have genuine questions you need answers to?” He said: “Absolutely.”

After Garraway kicked off the interview, Balls said: “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 since those terrible killings in Southport, there have been identifiable individuals on social media, who have been inciting not just riots but violence.

“They’ve been using racist language. They’ve been using falsehoods about what happened in Southport.

“This is this is happening on the social media platforms. What can be done, what should be done now by the social media companies and the police and the Government to stop this happening, because it’s been happening for a week?”

Balls also questioned Cooper on whether there has been a “two-tier approach” to policing, and if police have been “softer and more cautious” when policing the Gaza demonstrations, compared to a “tougher” approach over the last week.

Cooper replied that police have to operate “without fear or favour, whatever the kinds of crimes it is that they face”.