I was charmed by Ed Balls on television — but thankfully the feeling soon passed

This promised to be an awkward encounter. I was invited on to Newsnight on Tuesday to discuss the education bill in the Queen’s Speech and my opponent was to be Ed Balls.

For me, this was a bit like an Albanian dissident being asked to participate in a studio discussion with Enver Hoxa. During the general election campaign I was an enthusiastic supporter of Antony Calvert, Balls’s Conservative opponent in Morley and Outwood, and published numerous articles taking him to task over his record as Gordon Brown’s schools secretary. Since then, I’ve become an energetic opponent of his bid to become the next leader of the Labour party.

For instance, when he disclosed that he’d offered to stand aside in favour of Yvette Cooper on the grounds that it was important that there should be a woman in the contest, I pointed out that this was an incredibly patronising thing for a husband to say to his wife.