As leadership hopefuls go, Ed Balls is not the most obvious candidate to win hearts and minds. A divisive figure behind the scenes and a stilted performer in front of the camera, he has — to put it politely — not always exhibited the qualities most closely associated with future prime ministers. But his reputation as a strategist is legendary, which is probably why there was a frisson of excitement last week when he made a foray into the Labour leadership debate by expressing a sudden enthusiasm for spending cuts.
His swashbuckling pledge to find £2 billion worth of savings raised pulses, not least because Balls has been arguing privately with Lord Mandelson for a long time that matching the Tories on spending reductions is the wrong path to follow. He has been the most vocal supporter of Gordon Brown’s ‘Labour investment versus Tory cuts’ claim. But last week on Andrew Marr’s sofa — sporting a new hairstyle — he seemed to have made a Damascene conversion. For the many Labour MPs whose minds have already turned to a post-defeat leadership election, the sound of a campaign starting gun was unmistakable.
Balls clearly believes his time is coming. He set out his vision just days before Labour delegates gather for their annual conference in Brighton. Ring any bells? It seems like Mr Balls, 42, is now deploying the same tactics to promote himself that he and Mr Brown once used to torment Tony Blair. Such is the theatre of party conferences that next week’s event, intended as a platform for the Prime Minister, may easily turn into a frenzied debate about the leadership potential of Balls — and a question of who, if anyone, can stop him.
Enemies of Mr Balls (of which there are many, inside and outside of Cabinet) would argue that the man who not so long ago posed in an excruciating photo op on a swing, and who has a much-mocked habit of blinking when under pressure, is not best suited to the presentational rigours of leadership.
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