Balls: We must be a credible party of government

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

In an interview in the Times today, Ed Balls has again called for candidates to engage in a dialogue with the whole electorate, not just the Labour Party, saying “we will lose again if we think the right response to losing an election is to have an internal debate in London university halls.”

And he comments that it would be good if more people were on the ballot paper than the current three – himself and David and Ed Miliband – and the contest was widened.

Balls also says:

“The founding new Labour insight of 1997 is as relevant to 2010 as 1997 – that we cannot be a romantic party of opposition, we have to be a credible party of government…Of all the candidates I’m the only one who says we must hold on to that new Labour understanding because, to me, new Labour was 1994 to 1997, us translating from being a party of opposition to a party of government, understanding that our radicalism had to be based on credible foundations, that no one would trust you on public services unless you were trusted on interest rates and inflation.”

And while rejecting claims that he is too tribal, Balls also reveals that he’s still in regular contact with Gordon Brown, saying he last spoke to him on Wednesday this week:

“He’s good. He’s doing lots of writing, they are still managing the transition from living in London to Scotland.”

Read the interview here.