Balls sounds out colleagues for leadership bid

FORMER Cabinet minister Ed Balls was last night sounding out colleagues over a possible bid for the Labour Party leadership.

He said he would decide “in due course” whether to stand against the only currently declared candidate David Miliband.

Former foreign secretary Miliband said he hoped as many candidates as possible would stand and indicated his rivals could include his “immensely talented” younger brother, Ed.

Balls said the Labour Party wanted a “proper debate” about the lessons which needed to be learned after the election.

The former schools secretary said: “I’m obviously talking to people, but I don’t want to jump to any quick conclusions.”

Balls, a close ally of former prime minister Gordon Brown, faced a tough fight to win his Morley and Outwood seat in West Yorkshire with a majority of just over 1,000 at last week’s general election.

He told BBC News: “I think the pretty strong message from the Parliamentary Labour Party was they wanted to make sure that we talk about what’s happened in the election last week in a constituency like mine, where it was closely won, but there are some real issues for us to look at. There’s got to be a proper debate, people want a proper debate and I’m going to take that very seriously.

“I’m talking to people in the parliamentary party and in the wider country too and I will decide in due course.”

If Balls does run for the vacancy he will be able to count on the support of Brown’s former spin doctor Michael Dugher, who was last week elected as MP for Barnsley East.

Dugher told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “I will support Ed Balls. He’s not said whether he is prepared to stand yet, I hope he does.

“I think, like David Miliband, Ed is a great talent in the Labour Party. We are lucky to have David Miliband and Ed Balls and indeed others like Ed Miliband who have also been rumoured to have been interested in the leadership.”

A contest between the Blairite, elder Miliband and Balls would be unlikely to reopen old wounds in the party, Dugher insisted.

He said: “It won’t be Brown versus Blair, it will be David Miliband versus Ed Balls versus Ed Miliband versus anyone else who throws their hat into the ring.”

David Miliband said that it was important “as many candidates as possible are given the chance to declare themselves”.