Ed Balls and Sharon Stone lock heads in frosty exchange on ITV's Good Morning Britain

Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls was left to lick his wounds after being “put in his place” by an interviewee.

The ITV host and former politician was interviewing Sharon Stone earlier today (May 9) when he found himself on the receiving end of a verbal lashing from the Hollywood star. Balls had asked the American actress a question about allegations of having sex with another actor on a movie in the 1990s - which Stone fiercely denied.

It came amid a conversation about Stone switching from acting to painting, with one of her paintings representing her near-death experience in 2001. Stone was told she by doctors at the time she was “faking” an illness - which turned out to be a brain haemorrhage, caused by a ruptured artery.

He said: “Sharon, you are campaigning to improve mental health and support for people with the World Health Organization. There's been a huge change because of the Me Too movement, conviction of Harvey Weinstein, a different place now I hope the film industry in Los Angeles compared to when you were there.

“When you look back, on those early points in your career, the fact that the Hollywood producer Robert Evans advised you to have sex with your fellow lead William Baldwin on the 93 movie Sliver to improve his performance? When you look back on those times, how do you feel today about what producers said to you back then?”

Stone, appearing on the show via video link, said: “First of all, you're setting me up with the 'Did you beat your wife yet' comment. I'm not going to validate the statement that you just made as if it is true, so we're not going to do that, to start with. So I'd like to restart with a new question somewhere else.”