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“No vacancy” – Miliband confirms Balls will stay as Shadow Chancellor

January 13, 2013 11:37 am

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On this morning’s Andrew Marr show this morning, Ed Miliband (in an interview with James Landale) put to bed rumours that Ed Balls might not be Shadow Chancellor going into the next election, saying:

“There is no vacancy for shadow chancellor.”

“He (Balls) is doing a great job and he is going to continue doing a great job.”

“We have said that we will go into the next election as a team. But what I’m not going to do is start measuring the curtains for Downing Street.”

And referring to the 2010 Bloomberg speech made by Ed Balls, he said:

“He’s the person who said in August 2010, he’s the person who said, ‘Actually, I’m afraid this isn’t going to work, these plans form the Government’. And he turned out to be right. Those kind of good judgments are incredibly important in politics.”

Ed Balls will be Labour’s Shadow Chancellor in 2015, barring any major and unforeseen event.

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  • David B

    I read it more like the chairman of a football club giving his full backing to the manager atter a bad result on a Saturday, and how often is that manager sacked on Monday!

    But let’s hope he is shadow chancellor in June 2015, for all our sakes!

  • AlanGiles

    ““He’s the person who said in August 2010, he’s the person who
    said, ‘Actually, I’m afraid this isn’t going to work, these plans form
    the Government’. And he turned out to be right. ”

    A great many of us said that as well. And we were right, too. Perhaps the Shadow Chancellor’s job should become like that of the chairman of “Have I Got News For You” – we have a week at it each.

    Balls will forever be associated with Gordon Brown in the public mind.

    Remember a broken clock is right twice a day as well.

    • Amber_Star

      But Ed Balls didn’t just say it on a blog or to his mates down the pub. He gave a speech which can be watched & read by the world’s political & business community. He explained why the government’s plan wasn’t going to work & a lot of influential people took it on board. Not our current government however because the Tories are ideologues.

      Ed Balls had the ‘bottle’ to speak out & he got it right in front of the entire world; whilst the coalition government laughed & said he was wrong & believed they’d be able to use it to destroy his – & Labour’s – credibility.

      So, I think Ed Balls deserves Ed M’s support for his record. But there can be no resting on past laurels: So let’s hope that Ed Balls already has the bones of a convincing alternative ‘shadow budget’ & perhaps a credible economic plan which only needs some final adjustments to be ready when the time comes!

      • Daniel Speight

        Let us even say the virtual unsayable while handing out these bits of credit. In 2008 Gordon Brown almost single-handedly led the effort to stop the world falling into a depression. Yes Gordon Brown probably did save the world!

        Now if Cameron and Osborne had been in power, or even if Alistair Darling had been leading our efforts we probably would be in the fifth year of another great depression right now.

        Having been nice to the man I will now say what a shame his Damascene conversion to Keynes was preceded by a dozen years of pandering to the City and big business as he and Blair attempted to give us Thatcher’s Hayekian economics with a human face.

        I would temper my praise of Brown’s 2008 actions with the thought that maybe the banking system could have been saved without protecting the rich depositors on their holdings above the maximum protected by law. This would have involved of course the bank shareholders loosing all value in their shares too. I would also say that here in the UK some bankers should have faced the law for their actions as I think some did in the US.

        • JoeDM

          What are you on? Can I have some?

        • Brumanuensis

          Aye, but the public have made up their minds on this point.

          Not that this should let Osborne off the hook for behaving like a prize prat when Northern Rock first got into trouble.

    • JoeDM

      Having Crash Gordon’s right hand man as Chancellor is an ongoing gift to the Tories.

  • 1earthmother2

    The 2 Eds go into battle,After Dave Prentis responded to the pay freeze,it is important to begin discussions a post-election 5 year pay deal across what is left of the public sector for 2015-20.This can then put the living wage campaign into some kind of perspective.and put the emphasis on low pay.

  • MrSauce

    Fair enough…
    …but I predict that a major, foreseeable event will remove both Eds in 2015.

  • http://twitter.com/AdelesBells Adele Bailey

    Ed Balls is a noose around Ed Milibands neck. If he really wanted him, why did he originally appoint Alan Johnson?

    Get rid….

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