Ed Balls
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Edward Michael Balls (February 25, 1967) is a British politician and Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament for the West Yorkshire constituency of Normanton.
Early life and education
Born in Norwich he was educated at the Nottingham High School, Keble College, Oxford where he studied PPE, and later as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University. His career began as lead economic writer at the Financial Times (1990–1994) followed by his appointment as an economic adviser to the then shadow chancellor Gordon Brown (1994–1997). In 1995, in a speech written for Gordon Brown to give to an economics conference, he managed to insert the jargon phrase "post neo-classical endogenous growth theory". This was later gleefully recounted by Michael Heseltine, who then explained it: "That's not Brown's. It's Balls."Political career
As Labour swept to power in the General Election of 1997 he continued as an economic adviser to Brown, who was now chancellor. He then served as chief economic adviser to HM Treasury from 1999 to 2004, in which post he was once named the most powerful unelected person in Britain.In July 2004 he was selected to stand as Labour and Co-operative candidate for the parliamentary seat of Normanton in West Yorkshire, a Labour stronghold whose MP, Bill O'Brien retired. In the 2005 General Election he was elected MP for Normanton with a majority of 10,002 and 51.2% of the vote. The West Yorkshire seat has been occupied by Labour MPs for longer than any other constituency in the United Kingdom. It is, however, scheduled to disappear before the next election under the latest changes proposed by the Boundary Commission.
He became Economic Secretary to the Treasury, a junior ministerial position in HM Treasury, in the Cabinet reshuffle in May 2006.
Family
He is married to Yvette Cooper MP, a Minister of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government (formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister). They have three children, Ellie, Joe and Maddy.
His father, Michael Balls, a former academic and European civil servant, is an expert in alternatives to the use of animals in experiments, and chairman of the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME).
External links
- [Personal website] for the Normanton constituency
- [Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Edward Balls MP]
- [TheyWorkForYou.com – Edward Balls MP]
- [The Public Whip - Edward Balls MP, Normanton] voting record
- ["Backroom bruiser steps out from Brown's shadow"] – The Guardian interview with Ed Balls, July 10, 2004
- [FRAME website]
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