ITV GMB fans fume 'it's a DISGRACE' as they slam 'farcical' Yvette Cooper interview: 'Her husband's next to the interviewer!'

Instead, it was left to Ms Reid to ask Ms Cooper about the government's pledge to close the asylum hotels, why not a single small boat migrant had been returned to France despite a supposed deal, and how Labour was going to tackle the migrant crisis as a whole.

However, the manner of the interview was deemed "biased", a "fluff piece", and even "farcical" by some viewers who felt Ms Reid wasn't able to grill Ms Cooper adequately, given Mr Balls's spot on the show.

During one segment of the discussion, Ms Reid put to the Home Secretary: "The Prime Minister says he wants to move faster on asylum hotels. What are you going to do with all of those asylum seekers currently housed in hotels?"

"Yes, we need to end asylum hotels, and we think it can be done more quickly than the course of the Parliament, although that was our manifesto commitment by the end of the Parliament," Ms Cooper replied.

Ms Reid did challenge Ms Cooper as she interjected: "Those people have got to go somewhere, and currently they’re not being returned."

Ms Cooper insisted: "Yes, so we are increasing returns. So we’ve got a 28 percent increase in failed asylum seekers being returned. That’s really important. We’re also increasing the detention estates so that we can increase those returns further.

"We’ve got to reduce the number of people in the asylum system altogether. That is at the heart of this. The system we inherited, the decision-making had frozen at the time of the election.

"If we carried on with that, we’d have had tens of thousands more people in asylum hotels by now. We’ve prevented that from happening, but now what we need to do is to get those overall numbers down.

"The biggest change we can make is a total overhaul of the appeals system, because what’s happening is we’re now taking the initial decisions really quickly, so people are getting their decision, they’re getting turned down, but then they’re going into the appeals system, and that could be taking a year or more or multiple years while they’re still in asylum accommodation. That is broken.

"So that is our next step now. We’re going to be announcing the details later this year of a major overhaul of the asylum system, particularly clearing out these appeals, because that system is broken."

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After reeling off her answer, Ms Reid then asked Ms Cooper: "OK, but the appeals are heard by judges, and in many cases they’re interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Are you suggesting that a major overhaul would include junking parts or all of that?"

Ms Cooper replied, unchallenged: "So two things we’d do. First of all, we’d set up a new independent appeals commission, rather than it being done through the normal judicial court system, which is taking a long time, and which is also very difficult to quickly expand and respond to surges when you want to be able to clear a lot of cases all at once.

"So we want a new, separate, independent appeals commission that we’ll set up. Other countries have done the same, so that will speed things up.

"But the second thing you referred to is the international law, the way in which that’s interpreted. We do think there are reforms we can make in the law and in the UK rules that would change the way things like Article 8 are being interpreted."

"The right to family life?" Ms Reid chimed in, as Ms Cooper continued: "Yeah, to prevent some of the perverse conclusions that the courts we think have come to, whether we disagree with those conclusions, we think we can make changes there."

"How do you do that if we’re part of the ECHR?" Ms Reid plainly asked. Ms Cooper responded: "So the ECHR - international law is a very broad brush. They set out the broad principles. The crucial thing is how those principles are then interpreted in the domestic courts, in UK laws."

"Are you going to overrule judges’ decisions?" Ms Reid challenged, to which the Home Secretary said: "Well, something like the right to family life, for example. It actually has to be balanced against the rights of countries to be able to run a functioning immigration and asylum system."

Ms Reid then cut back in: "No, we know that, but the trouble is I don’t understand how you’re going to change it. If a judge decides that somebody is allowed to stay here on appeal because they have children here, for instance, how on earth would you as a government minister overrule that?"

The GMB host went on to suggest the UK could only do Ms Cooper's wishes by "junking" the ECHR, to which Ms Cooper explained: "No, so the way in which the family rules are set out in the UK... So we have immigration rules that set out the details about the way in which family arrangements…

"So, for example, if you’re a British citizen and you’re bringing family to the UK, you have to meet certain criteria around your income, for example, around people being able to speak English, those sorts of things. So we have rules in place in the UK. The problem is that some of those rules have now become so complicated."

Ms Reid interjected: "But speak plainly, Home Secretary. Currently, there’s a complete lack of confidence in the way that you’re handling this. Seven in 10 people believe that the Prime Minister is handling this issue badly.

"Your opposition parties want to junk the ECHR altogether. What are you going to do with Article 8, which is so contentious, it leads to headlines about children who don’t like our chicken nuggets in other countries being allowed to stay? Just speak plainly about what you’re going to do so people can understand the change you’re going to make."

Ms Cooper replied: "So it’s basically changing the rules in the UK, which effectively tell the courts how Article 8 should be interpreted in the UK."

The pair soon moved on to a discussion about returning small boat migrants to France and other issues facing Britain's borders, but it's safe to say the tone in which Ms Cooper was challenged and a supposed lack of scrutiny of her responses didn't sit well with a number of ITV viewers.

Reacting to clips of the interview on X, one critic fumed: "I cannot believe that ITV is allowing her husband to be sat next to the interviewer! It’s disgusting, she could have been absolutely ridiculed for her policies, but gets off lightly again."

"This sounded more like a party political broadcast from the Labour Party," a second critiqued, before a third hit out: "Bit of a farcical interview given her colleague, Yvette’s husband, was sat next to her."

A fourth echoed: "This show is one massive fraud with Susanna pretending she's holding Cooper to account. In reality, they're close friends and Cooper's husband is a presenter for the show! This is how much they treat us with contempt."

"The worst interview possible - no answers to where are the migrants going to be housed away from hotels - allowing her to amble in and waste time - biased, obviously towards Ed Balls," a fifth blasted.

Meanwhile, others questioned why Balls was able to skirt the interview. "If it’s ok for Ed to present the show, then he should take part in the interview, 'two-tier' presenting!" another critic hit out.

And a further fan concurred: "What, @edballs isn't going to interrogate his wife? This is the state of impartiality in UK media. Fluff piece by @GMB, a disgrace to journalism." (sic)