After his Strictly successes it’s hard to imagine Ed Balls not making a return to mainstream politics
He’s now got a great platform – but how is he going to use it?
One of the great distractions this autumn has been the extraordinary run that ex-LAB cabinet minister and shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has had on Strictly. I don’t follow the show myself but every weekend I’ve been hunting out the video clips of his Saturday night performances which have been stunning.
Ed’s now built up a public persona that is so different from his days in office you wonder what will happen when he finally gets voted off the the show or just possibly wins it.
He is currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School’s Center for Business and Government, and a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. He’s also chairman of Norwich City..
Back in the summer of 2010 I thought that he would have made a better Labour leader than either of the Miliband brothers but that was not to be. He’s a class act politically as we saw during his period facing Michael Gove as shadow education secretary.
To make a return to politics needs first to get himself a parliamentary seat. Unless a convenient by-election comes up that might mean waiting till 2020 if that is how long the parliament lasts.
Becoming leader might be tougher because Corbyn, though totally unsuited to the job, is firmly entrenched and all those post GE2015 new members are going to keep their man in place.
One wild thought is that Balls could head a breakaway Labour group that regarded trying to get back into power as a priority.
You can get 100/1 on him being next LAB leader and 20/1 on him winning Strictly.