View all newsletters
Sign up to our newsletters

Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Politics
  2. UK Politics
13 September 2016

Ed Balls: The best thing for Theresa May would be a strong Labour Party

The former Labour cabinet minister predicts a lack of opposition will harm the Tories. 

By George Eaton

At an event at King’s College last night, Ed Balls presented an apparent paradox: “The best thing for Theresa May would be for the Labour Party to get a grip on itself.” But speaking with the wisdom of experience, Balls explained: “It was terrible for us that Iain Duncan Smith became leader of the Conservative Party.”

The lack of opposition, he said, intensified Labour’s internal divisions. “A strongly led Conservative Party in 2001 would have been the best thing that could have happened to us. The overriding story became Blair-Brown and the succession. Everything was seen through the prism of Blair versus Brown and who was going to succeed him, Brown or someone from the Blair camp.”

Balls, who is a King’s College visiting professor, and who was promoting his fine new memoir Speaking Out, argued that May was making a mistake by “not defining Brexit” and by “trying to allow a bit of chaos and stand above fighting ministers”.

On Labour’s plight, Balls said that a split would be “massively premature” (not a complete rejection) and suggested that, as in the past, it would take further general election defeats before the left’s opponents could win.

“In the end, if you go back to 1994, when Tony became leader of the Labour Party there was a subsequent big increase in membership and maybe they would have been people who were more New Labour in their leanings. But the reality is that in 1994, that process hadn’t happened, the Labour Party membership was not the same as today’s membership, but it was a membership which was quite demanding, probably more to the left than the equilibrium of the Parliament Labour Party. But we’d lost three general elections and people really wanted to win and Tony Blair won by a landslide in that election because people wanted a victory.

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

“Now, we haven’t had a general election defeat since Jeremy Corbyn became the leader, we’ve only had one general election defeat so far since we came out of government. So maybe there has to be a focusing of some people’s minds on the choice between government and opposition and the kind of change we saw in the attitude of members between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s, that may be part of it.”

Balls also made a coded criticism of Owen Smith’s campaign warning that “it’s not enough to say we agree with Jeremy but we don’t like his leadership style.” He called for “a galvanising choice” about the party’s direction, one that Corbyn’s opponents could “recruit around”. 

“I think there are some bigger choices about where our country goes, which we talked about earlier for Theresa May, which are as relevant to the Labour Party about our attitude to markets, our attitude to business, our attitude to Europe, our attitude to defence and security. I think we have to have those arguments and use them to galvanise people who have a more centre-left, social democratic view of the future of our party than some of the people who have joined the Labour Party over the last year.”

Asked whether he could make a political comeback (Balls, like David Cameron, is only 49), he was careful not to rule out the possibility. But he quipped: “The chance of Labour’s NEC picking me as a by-election candidate is pretty thin.”

Content from our partners
The promise of prevention
How Labour hopes to make the UK a leader in green energy
Is now the time to rethink health and care for older people? With Age UK

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU