Ed Balls praises Lewis Capaldi and compares Tourette's with his own stammer

Ed Balls has compared his stutter to Lewis Capaldi's Tourette's syndrome and said it helped him relate to the pop star's struggles.

Capaldi performed on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on Saturday but struggled to finish a performance of his hit song Someone You Loved due to the condition.

After the set, Capaldi said he would be taking some time away from the spotlight to focus on his mental health.

Read more: Lewis Capaldi says his documentary made him address 'consuming' mental health struggles

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Balls offered his support to Capaldi: "It’s so important to say because there was some reporting saying, 'The crowd did brilliantly while Lewis Capaldi struggled', but the truth was, it’s just part of who he is.

"He did it, he came through it, and the crowd loved him for it."

The former politician went on to say how his own stammer and his work with children who have the condition helps him understand Capaldi's Tourette's better: "I know with the work I’ve done with the children with stammering, the idea that it’s something you should try and hide or conceal or worry about actually makes it worse, so you just have to say, Lewis has this, and he deals with it."

Balls also discussed his own issues with a stammer, which he did not know he had until he was already an elected MP. He said: "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.

"It got worse when I became a Cabinet minister. We went off to investigate and was told it was an interiorised stammer."

He added: "The reality is that lots of things I’ve done since, like Strictly, have been much easier to do after dealing with a stammer. It’s given me the confidence to do many difficult and fabulous things since. If I was choosing again, I’d choose a stammer."

Capaldi has been open about his mental health struggles since gaining fame just a few years ago. He began to suffer from nervous ticks which were later diagnosed as Tourette's syndrome.

Tourette's syndrome usually begins in childhood and is a condition that forces people to make involuntary sounds or movements. The condition is usually made worse by stress.

Watch below: Lewis Capaldi fans help singer finish set at Glastonbury