Category Archives: Ed Balls

Put aside differences to focus on growth across UK, Ed Balls tells politicians

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Former shadow chancellor is one of the authors of a new academic paper on how to bridge the regional divide

Britain needs a 20-year cross-party consensus to level up the economy and unleash the untapped potential of regions outside London and the south-east, the former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.

Balls, one of five co-authors of an academic paper on bridging the UK’s regional divide, said it was vital that Labour and Conservative politicians put aside their differences in order to embed necessary funding and governance reforms.

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‘We’re frenemies’: George Osborne and Ed Balls to launch economics podcast

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Former chancellor and ex-shadow chancellor will discuss and analyse the state of the British economy

George Osborne is launching an economics podcast with his “frenemy” Ed Balls in an attempt to capitalise on the success of shows such as The Rest is Politics.

Osborne, the architect of the Conservatives’ austerity policies which imposed deep cuts on British public services, spent four years opposite Balls in the House of Commons. But since leaving frontline politics the pair have become a marketable media double act, appearing together on political shows to debate the state of the economy.

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Blair and former PMs should not act as political ‘figureheads’, says Ed Balls

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Ex-Labour minister tells Hay festival that the involvement of former leaders in the ‘next phase of politics’ may not be sensible

Ed Balls has said former prime ministers such as Tony Blair and David Cameron should not attempt to return as “figureheads for the next phase of politics”.

The former cabinet minister’s comments addressed Blair’s upcoming Future of Britain conference, which is seen as an attempt to reinvigorate centrist politics in the UK by taking inspiration from the success of La République En Marche, the recently created centre-left party that brought Emmanuel Macron to power in France.

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Ed Balls rules out political comeback for Labour in Wakefield byelection

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Former shadow chancellor says he has ‘no intention’ of putting himself forward to stand for the West Yorkshire seat

Ed Balls has ruled out a return to politics as a Labour candidate in the upcoming Wakefield byelection.

The former shadow chancellor, who lost his Morley and Outwood seat at the 2015 general election, wrote on Twitter that he had “no intention of putting myself forward” for the contest.

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US message to Britain in bilateral trade talks: it’s us – or China

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Proposed clause viewed by diplomats as lever to deter closer UK relations with Beijing

The US government has been privately pressing the UK in bilateral trade talks to make a choice between the US and China.

The US is seeking to insert a clause that would allow it to retreat from parts of the deal if Britain reaches a trade agreement with another country that the US did not approve.

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