Ed Balls breaks down in tears live on GMB as he reveals how Gareth Gates’s stammer inspired him to go public with his own speech impediment that was famously mocked by David Cameron in the Commons in 2012

Ed Balls couldn’t hold back his tears as he emotionally interviewed Gareth Gates about his stammer on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday. 

The presenter and former Labour cabinet minister, 56, has previously spoken about his ‘decade-long struggle’ with a stammer, which saw him famously mocked by David Cameron in the Commons in 2012.

Ed described Gareth, 39, an ‘inspiration’ after he was last week unveiled as the winner of this year’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. 

Speaking alongside co-host Susanna Reid, Ed credited the singer and actor for ‘showing him how’ to be in the public eye with a speech impediment. 

Breaking down in tears, Ed said:  ‘You inspired me, you really did. I thought if Gareth Gates can do this, I can too. 

‘I thought if he can be public, I can be public and it was really hard but I did it because you showed me how to do it.’

Giving Ed a hug, Gareth replied: ‘Thank you for saying that it means a lot. Bless you. Just never give up!’

He added: ‘I’ve proved to people you can have an affliction and don’t let it dictate who you are. You’re able to achieve whatever you want in life. You just have to be strong.

‘My speech is massively affected if I’m tired, stressed. Under pressure. That’s the nature of the show [Celebrity SAS] – to push you to your limits. It was hard. I’m much more confident now. I got quite a lot out of the show’. 

Gareth, who was runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol in 2002, went on to say that he was ‘pleased’ to have a stammer when he was finding fame. 

He added: ‘It made me stand out from the crowd. I was actually pleased I had a stammer!

‘It is a battle every day. You aren’t able to be the person you want to be. You’re held back by your affliction. It’s made me a lot stronger person.’

Ed first revealed he had struggled with a stammer in an 2011 article with the Daily Telegraph, revealing he faced a daily battle to deliver his words and had to memorise all his speeches because he could not read a script. 

In an attempt to overcome his stammer, Ed said he memorised 15 speeches a week and when he appears to have forgotten his lines, it is just that his voice has frozen. 

Ed told the Telegraph: ‘You just have to be yourself whatever you do. It doesn’t cause me a problem as Secretary of State, although there are times when it is tough. 

The worst thing you can do is try and stop it. That’s when you trip up. It happens to me on live TV.

‘Some people speak without notes because they think it looks better. Some people do it because they think it leads to a better speech. But I can’t read the words out.’

At the time, the British Stammering Association announced that Ed had become a patron of the association. Its chief executive, Norbert Lieckfeldt, commended him for talking about his stammer in public.

He later admitted he didn’t know he had one until he was ‘already in the Cabinet’ and found out he had issues speaking publicly in certain situations. 

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

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

In 2016, Ed spoke frankly about his ‘decade-long struggle’ with a stammer and how then-Prime Minister David Cameron’s taunts led him to go public with his affliction.

The former shadow chancellor said he was not actually diagnosed with the condition – which caused him to seize up during speeches and debates – until he was 41.

In his book, Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics, he recalls how Cameron would lead the jeering from the Commons front bench – and nicknamed him ‘Blinky Balls’.

The jibes eventually persuaded Ed to publicly reveal his problem – at first in a newspaper article, and then in a radio interview after which, he admits, the ‘tears welled up’.

He first noticed his stutter when appointed to his first ministerial job in 2006. In every TV interview ‘there was at least one moment when my voice would seize up and my eyes stare as I clenched my throat and fist,’ he wrote.

‘It didn’t take long for people to pick up on it. I learnt I’d acquired the nickname ‘Blinky Balls’ in Conservative Central Office, supposedly courtesy of Cameron.

‘As the Tories got a chance to see me up close across the dispatch box, a new phenomenon started: If I hesitated when answering a question, they’d shout ‘Errrr’, which made me hesitate more, and the laughter and mocking Errrr’s would grow louder.’

In the Commons a year later, as schools secretary, he tried to read a statement – ‘but for seconds, I couldn’t say anything. As I eventually sat down, I heard the late, great Gwyneth Dunwoody say in a very loud voice: ‘He’s supposed to be the Secretary of State and he can’t even get his words out’.’

When one of his aides suggested he consult the website of the British Stammering Association, his first instinct was to think: ‘Why am I reading this? I don’t have a stammer.’

But he was diagnosed with an ‘interiorised stammer’, commonly known as a block. ‘I thought: ‘Here I am, aged 41, a Cabinet Minister, and I’ve only just found out I’ve got a stammer,’ he recalled. The aide put him in touch with a therapist.

‘I’m ashamed to say I was both sceptical and a bit worried at the prospect,’ said Ed. ‘It all felt a bit Cherie Blair and Carole Caplin.’

The therapist taught him to slow his speaking tempo, ‘calm down and get in control’. He was also advised to go public with his problem but he feared it might be seen as a sign of weakness.

Ed previously revealed that he went to speech therapy every week for three years until he was able to manage the ‘block’.

He said: ‘I had speech therapy every week for three years. I was put in touch with a speech therapist called Jan Logan from City Lit, who said it was a stammer. 

‘I spent six months arguing with her about whether it was a stammer or not, because I didn’t really believe it.’

Ed then got to know former Monty Python star Michael Palin who has campaigned to raise awareness of stammering as a serious problem. He visited Palin’s Centre for Stammering Children in London in 2011.

There a father whose child was struggling with a stammer said Ed was a ‘coward’ for not coming out about his own. ‘Why don’t you give these kids some hope and confidence that you can have a stammer and become a Cabinet minister?’ he asked him.

Ed was ‘mortified’ – and wrote an article for The Times, admitting to having the affliction.

The stammer, however, came back as he responded to then-chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement in 2012.

‘I suddenly had a really bad block, and there was a gale of noise and mockery from the Tories, with David Cameron leading the laughter,’ he recalled.

In 2012, the former Chancellor Mr Osborn denied that Conservatives were laughing at the shadow chancellor over his stammer.

‘I would say the reason why the House of Commons doesn’t take Ed Balls very seriously is not, it’s got nothing to do with the fact he’s got a stammer.’

‘It’s because he was the chief economic adviser when it all went wrong, and he never acknowledges that. He never admits that he was there at the scene of the crime, so obviously when we listen to his answers about what should happen next, we’re a bit sceptical.’

The incident persuaded him to speak the next morning on Radio 4’s Today programme about his stammer and how it could affect his Commons performance.

‘I came out of the Today interview, my phone exploding with messages saying ‘that was brilliant’, he wrote.

‘But then as tears welled up I sat disconsolate in a room on my own for ten minutes, thinking: ‘Why make myself so exposed?’.’

Last month, Gareth became emotional while talking about growing up with a stammer on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

A tearful Gareth, who finished second to Will Young on Pop Idol in 2002, said: ‘For me, growing up was hard – at school, having a stammer.

‘School was just… [I was] verbally abused, physically. Lads just holding me down and shouting things,’ said Gareth, who occasionally took breaks to wipe tears from his eyes.

‘I think that’s why I’m here, to show myself that I am stronger, and that hopefully this time, I won’t break.’

Last week Gareth was announced the winner of the 2023 military-style series, beating competitor, the disgraced former health secretary Matt Hancock.

Discussing how much winning a reality TV show means to him, he said: ‘When I was a 17-year-old boy, I entered a TV talent show. I made the final, but didn’t win.

‘But 20 years on, I wanted to prove to myself that I am strong and I can make it right down to the end and hopefully even win.’

He later described the win and glory as ‘cathartic’ over two decades after losing to Will on the show.

He said: ‘I thought at last, I’ve actually won a talent TV show and not come second this time. It was a massive weight off my shoulders. I’ve finally redeemed myself from being the biggest loser in the UK back in 2002.’

After Pop Idol, Gareth went on to score several big hits, including the million-selling cover of Unchained Melody and Stupid Mistake.

He made a return to TV in recent years, including competing on Dancing on Ice, The Big Reunion and more recently Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

Gareth beat fellow recruits Mr Hancock, 45, and Danielle Lloyd, 39, after the other sixteen celebs failed to make the final.

Chief instructor, Billy Billingham MBE QCB and his team of Directing Staff (DS), Foxy (Jason Fox), Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver decided that Gareth was the only celebrity who had the mental and physical strength and resilience to pass the course.

After his name was announced a shocked Gareth become emotional and said: ‘Thank you, Staff. Wow. Thank you.’