Good Morning Britain host Ed Balls is reduced to tears as he recalls his speech impediment battle during interview with ‘inspirational’ Gareth Gates

Ed Balls relived his emotional 2023 interview with Gareth Gates on Tuesday, after the former Pop Idol winner returned to the Good Morning Britain studio for a chat about his speech impediment.

Gates overcame a debilitating stuttering disorder before becoming certified as a speech coach and course instructor with the McGuire Program, a stuttering treatment course designed for people aged 14 and over.

When the 39-year-old singer spoke about his stutter on Tuesday, he was shown a clip from a previous appearance on Good Morning Britain a year ago, in which the 57-year-old presenter Balls burst into tears as he spoke about his own struggles with a speech impediment.

The former Minister for Children, Schools and Families was reduced to tears as he recalled his childhood struggle with the issue during an interview with Gates and presenter Susanna Reid.

“You inspired me. I thought, ‘If Gareth Gates can do this, I can do it. And if he can be in public, I can do it. It was really hard, but I did it because you showed me how to do it,'” Balls told him.

In a clip that originally aired in November 2023, Balls and Gates embraced after discussing their separate struggles with speech impediments

Reid eventually encouraged the couple to hug when she realized her co-host was crying, telling him, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s something to be proud of – it’s part of your identity, right! [Gareth] He broke ground for you, didn’t he Ed? Here we go Gareth, that’s what you did.

Gates added: “You are now a role model to me! For you to do this is truly incredible.”

The presenter and former Labour minister has previously spoken of his “decade-long battle” with a stammer, which earned him taunts from David Cameron in the House of Commons in 2012.

Speaking to Gates in November 2023, Balls described him as an “inspiration” after he was revealed as the winner of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

Gates added: “I’ve shown people that you can have a condition and not let it define you. You can achieve anything you want in life. You just have to be strong.

‘My speech is affected tremendously when I’m tired, stressed. Under pressure. That’s the nature of the show. [Celebrity SAS] – to push yourself to the limit. That was hard. I have a lot more confidence now. I got a lot out of the show.’

The singer, who finished runner-up in the first series of ITV talent show Pop Idol in 2002, said he was “glad” he had a stammer when he became famous.

He said, “It made me stand out. I was actually glad I stuttered!”

The former Minister for Children, Schools and Families was reduced to tears as he recalled his youthful struggle with the issue during an interview with Gates and co-host Susanna Reid.

Balls praised the singer and actor for showing him how to be in the spotlight despite a speech impediment

“It’s a fight every day. You’re not able to be the person you want to be. You’re held back by your condition. It’s made me a much stronger person.”

Ed first revealed his stutter in a 2011 Times article. He said he struggled to deliver his words every day and had to memorize all of his speeches because he couldn’t read a script.

In an attempt to overcome his stutter, Balls says he memorizes 15 speeches a week, and when he forgets his lines, it’s because his voice gets stuck.

He said then: ‘You just have to be yourself, whatever you do. It doesn’t pose a problem for me as Foreign Minister, although there are times when it is difficult.

“The worst thing you can do is try to stop it. Then you stumble. It’s happening to me live on TV.

“Some people speak without notes because they think it looks better. Some people do it because they think it makes for a better speech. But I can’t read the words.”

Gates, who came second in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol in 2002 (pictured left, with Will Young right), said he was “glad” he had a stammer when he became famous

At the time, the British Stammering Association announced that Balls had become a patron of the association. Its chief executive, Norbert Lieckfeldt, praised him for speaking publicly about his stammer.

He later admitted that he didn’t know he had one until he was “already in the cabinet” and found that he had difficulty speaking in public in certain situations.

During an interview with the Independent in 2021, he said: ‘When I was selected as an MP in 2004, I spoke to my dad after BBC Any Questions? and he said, ‘You’ve got the same thing as me, but I don’t know what it is’.

‘I spent two or three years trying to figure out what it was and how to deal with the fact that my speeches sometimes dried up during TV interviews and in the House of Commons.’

In 2016, Balls spoke candidly about his “decade-long battle” with a stammer and how scorn from then-Prime Minister David Cameron prompted him to come forward with his problem.

The former shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer said he was only diagnosed with the condition at the age of 41, which left him convulsing during speeches and debates.

In his book Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics, he tells how Cameron led the derision of MPs and earned him the nickname ‘Blinky Balls’.

The mockery eventually convinced Ed to discuss his problem publicly, first in a newspaper article and then in a radio interview. After that, he admits, “tears came to his eyes.”