Ed Balls tells porkies about the deficit

Ed Balls has just been given a thorough grilling by Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics — particularly on his past assertions that Labour were not running a structural deficit in the years leading up to the financial crisis. Here’s the relevant section of the interview:

In the past, we've accused Balls of deploying 'Brownies' — deliberately misleading half-truths. But in this case, what he says is flatly untrue.

Let's start with Balls' misquoting of his interview with Andrew Mar from January 2011. Here's what he said then:

Andrew Marr: 'It is true to say, is it not, that in the run-up to the financial crisis, Britain was running the worst structural deficit — that's the extra beyond the cycle — of any of the G7 countries?'

Ed Balls: 'I don't think we had a structural deficit at all in that period.