Former cabinet member says shadow chancellor 'has brain power Britain needs' and dismisses Tories' tax-and-spend jibes
Ed Balls has received a startling endorsement from one-time foe Peter Mandelson, who said Balls had the "economic brain power, financial discipline and global outlook" to bring Britain long-term growth.
The pair were involved in an on-off briefing war during the first two Blair governments, but Lord Mandelson told a fundraising speech for the shadow chancellor late Tuesday that Balls "is under attack from the Bullingdon boys at the top of the Tory party because he has the strength of intellect to challenge them".
Mandelson dismissed suggestions that Balls was too reliant on achieving growth through more public spending, saying the shadow chancellor realises "Labour needs to focus laser-like on the challenge of wealth creation and what business needs in order to grow, as well as on what we need to do for wealth distribution". Balls, he said, "is someone who understands how a modern economy really works".
Mandelson – often briefing on behalf of Tony Blair, and Balls, briefing on behalf of Gordon Brown – had numerous clashes between 1997 and 2005, especially over the approach to the euro. He acknowledges they were the commanders-in-chief during the Blair-Brown battles.
But in recent years there has been a rapprochement between the two, built on shared beliefs about how the state can support industry so it can prosper.
Mandelson claimed Balls would try to win the 2015 election by an argument about how to make growth sustainable. He said Balls has been proved to be correct when he said the Conservative chancellor, George Osborne, cut unnecessarily fast in 2010.
Balls still trails Osborne as the politician voters trust with the economy, and Mandelson's endorsement will at the very least make some leading businessmen look at Balls again.
Mandelson, a cabinet member under Blair and Brown, insisted that Balls was not the tax-and-spend politician the Tories and rightwing press liked to suggest.
Based on numerous conversations with Balls, he claimed he "is absolutely determined to do all he can not to give them the economic ammunition they want to base their election campaign on next year".
Warning that the Tories want to run a campaign based on the threat of a Labour tax bombshell, he said: "It's a trap we mustn't fall into. And with Ed as shadow chancellor, it's a trap we won't fall into."
He claimed Balls, he said, is a man willing to say no to his party and "someone who will resist the short-term temptations that will bring us nothing in the long term".
He added that Balls is "someone who knows the difference between populism and realism, and isn't going to get mired in public v private dividing lines. That's why the more the Tories attack him, the more they are desperate for him to fail – and the more we need him to succeed".
He urged Balls to maintain his humanity – saying: "Keep the lasagne flowing, keep up the marathons and the piano recitals" – but to continue to be a tough guy.
Read more here >> The Guardian
