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Ed Balls – the proud Co-operator
It’s taken three days of torrid headlines, but today Labour has finally come out fighting about its association with the crystal Methodist and former Co-op banker Paul Flowers.
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Shadow chancellor Ed Balls says the previous Labour government did not regulate the banks “in a tough enough way” and his party has learned lessons since then.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls says Labour will stick with austerity, capping child benefit and pledging not to raise borrowing.
“I think that is right” – Ed Balls agrees that politicians have to enshrine budget pledges in law in order to get the public to trust them. Watch his only interview at 6:30pm on Channel 4 News.
He’s not “squeezing the rich for the sake of it”, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls tells C4 News, after announcing a return to the 50p rate. But he wants to show Britain that Labour is serious about change.
It’s taken three days of torrid headlines, but today Labour has finally come out fighting about its association with the crystal Methodist and former Co-op banker Paul Flowers.
Labour’s shadow chancellor Ed Balls denies having anything to do with the “despicable” negative briefings of the party’s former spin doctor, Damian McBride, despite being close allies at the time.
George Osborne claims the UK economy has “turned a corner” with some signs of recovery. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls tells Cathy Newman the damage to living standards has already been done.
For a new perspective on shadow cancellor Ed Balls’s address to the Labour conference, we took a copy of his speech and fed it through the patented Channel 4 News Snowcloud word-grinder.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls tells Jon Snow at the Labour conference that it “is obviously not the most important job if you want to be popular – but it’s important to be able to be tough”.
The coalition’s economic plan has failed: now families are crying out for change. That’s the view of the shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, who’s warning the UK economy could face long term damage.
Ed Balls doesn’t really do contrition. He flirted with the idea on the Today programme this morning when he said sorry for the failure of banking regulations, and admitted that not every pound had been well spent by Labour.
The question Ed Miliband and the Labour shadow cabinet has to work out at this conference is as much about Ed Balls as anything else. Is he the economic mastermind or the electoral liability? His conference speech at Labour tried to acknowledge that he and his boss Gordon Brown made mistakes – but not the ones the government tries to pin on them. As they try to regain economic credibility they must decide whether it can be done by Ed Balls.
Ed Balls says he doesn’t care if it is plan A, B or C – Britain just needs a plan for growth and tells Channel 4 News he has the measures in place to fix an economy that has “flatlined”.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has urged trade unions not to fall into the Government’s “trap” of calling mass strikes in opposition to planned public sector pension reforms.
The Shadow Chancellor calls for an emergency VAT cut amid poor retail sales figures. But Nick Clegg says Labour’s plans are “bankrupt”, and an economist tells Channel 4 News the move would cost £12bn.