Edward Michael Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British broadcaster, economist and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton and later for Morley and Outwood between 2005 and 2015.
Balls attended Nottingham High School before he studied philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, Oxford, and was later a Kennedy Scholar in economics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He was a teaching fellow at Harvard from 1988 to 1990, when he joined the Financial Times as the lead economic writer. Balls had joined the Labour Party while attending Nottingham High School, and became an adviser to Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1994, continuing in this role after Labour won the 1997 general election, and eventually becoming the Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury.
At the 2005 general election, Balls was elected as the MP for Normanton (which in 2010 became Morley and Outwood), and in 2006 became Economic Secretary to the Treasury. When Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Balls became Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, serving until the 2010 general election; Labour were defeated after 13 years in government. Balls was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education under Harriet Harman (as temporary leader) and finished in third place at the 2010 Labour leadership election, triggered by Brown's resignation as Leader of the Labour Party, after which he was appointed as Ed Miliband's Shadow Home Secretary. He served in this role until 2011, when he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role that he held until he was unseated at the 2015 general election.
Following his electoral defeat, he became a senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and a visiting professor to the Policy Institute at King's College London. He was appointed chairman of Norwich City F.C. in December 2015, a position he held until December 2018. In 2020, he was appointed Professor of Political Economy at King's College London. Balls was a contestant on series 14 of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, surviving until week 10, and in 2021 was the winner in the BBC's Celebrity Best Home Cook. He is currently a presenter for the ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain.
In 2021, in celebration of "Lifelong Learning Week", Balls hosted a special event at City Lit alongside Principal, Mark Malcomson. Balls discussed the importance of lifelong learning and his time at City Lit as well as his memoir Appetite. Balls received a City Lit Lifetime Fellowship Award as recognition for the support and inspiration he provided to adult education provider City Lit and its students.
Early life
Balls' father is zoologist Michael Balls; his mother is Carolyn Janet Riseborough. His younger brother is Andrew Balls, the CIO for Global Fixed Income at the investment firm PIMCO. His grandfather was a lorry driver and died of cancer when Balls was young.
Balls was born in Norwich. When he was eight years old the family moved to Nottingham where he attended Crossdale Drive Primary School in Keyworth and the private all-boys Nottingham High School, where he played the violin.
Raised as an Anglican, he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a First – according to John Rentoul in The Independent – ahead of David Cameron. Later he attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar specialising in Economics.
Balls joined the Labour Party in 1983 while still at school. While at Oxford University he was a partially active member of the Labour Club, but also signed up to the Liberal Club as well as the Conservative Association, "because they used to book top-flight political speakers, and only members were allowed to attend their lectures" according to friends. Balls was a founding member of The Steamers, an all-male drinking club, and suffered embarrassment when a contemporary photo of him wearing Nazi uniform appeared in the papers.
Early career
Between 1988 and 1990, Balls was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University. He joined the Financial Times in 1990 as a lead economic writer until his appointment as an economic adviser to Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1994. When Labour regained power at the 1997 general election, Brown became Chancellor and Balls continued to work as his economic adviser, eventually becoming Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury.