Does Ed Balls think Gordon Brown lost his grip on reality in his final years at the Treasury?

Ed Balls tells The Times today that:

“The moment you stop wanting to do the job you are doing and start thinking about the future or next stage is the point when you start to lose a grip with reality.”

Now, Balls is saying this as part of his attempt to deny that he wanted to be made Chancellor in the reshuffle. But it does make one think what Balls thought of Gordon Brown’s mental state during his final years at the Treasury when he spent so long agitating to move up to the top job. Indeed, one could make a case that by Balls’ definition, Brown has been losing his grip on reality ever since he made the deal with Blair at Granita in 1994.

PS Balls is also not averse to thinking about his own future. He said in a New Statesman interview back in March, “Would I like to be chancellor at some point in the future? Of course I would.