Ed Balls says his next step will be “outside of politics”

In his first interview since the election, former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, who lost his Morley & Outwood seat on May 7th, has said that he is not looking for a way back into politics. While there has been speculation that Balls would look to return to Parliament in a by-election, he said that he was primarily interested now in writing abut economics.

Questioned by the BBC’s Nick Robinson, Balls said that he was ready to take his share of the responsibility for Labour’s defeat:

“Ed Miliband said straight after the election he took responsibility but all of us have to bear our share of responsibility.

“Ed was the leader I backed him as shadow chancellor 100%. In the end he didn’t persuade people he could be the prime minister but I didn’t persuade people I could be the chancellor either.

“I have to take that on the chin. People will analyse for weeks and months what happened and that’s something that still feels too early for me.”

His only criticism was that he wanted Labour to be more “pro-business”, but added that he “also backed Ed Miliband 100%.”

On leaving politics he would not rule anything out, but said that his focus now was making a “difference to the world outside of politics”:

“You never say never about anything, because who knows what’s going to happen, but the reality for me now is that I want to make a difference to the world outside of politics. That’s how I’m thinking about things. I’m not going to be dashing back.

“I’ve been thinking about and writing about economics for 20 years and there’s really big issues out there … is the financial system sound, the development challenge which is pushing migrants into Europe. These are things where, for the first time, there’s real time to stand back and think and write a bit. That’s what I’ll do.”

And, unsurprisingly, he became the latest public supporter of Yvette Cooper’s bid to become Labour leader.