Ed Balls
The Right Honourable
Edward Balls MP
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and
Families
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 June 2007
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by
New Position
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office
6 May 2006 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by
Ivan Lewis
Succeeded by
Kitty Ussher
Member of Parliament
for Normanton
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded by
Bill O’Brien
Majority
10,002 (26.7%)
Born
25 February 1967 (1967-02-25)
Norwich, UK
Nationality
British
Political party
Labour Co-operative
Spouse
Yvette Cooper (Chief Secretary
to the Treasury)
Children
Ellie, Joe and Maddy
Residence
Castleford
Alma mater
Keble College, Oxford
Website
www.EdBalls.co.uk
Edward Michael "Ed" Balls, MP (born 25
February 1967) is a British politician, and La-
bour and Co-operative Member of Parliament
for the West Yorkshire constituency of Nor-
manton. Since June 2007 he has been Secret-
ary of State for Children, Schools and
Families.
Early life
Balls was born in Norwich, Norfolk and edu-
cated at Crossdale Drive Primary School in
Keyworth, Notts and then the independent
fee-paying boys Nottingham High School. He
studied PPE at Keble College, Oxford, and
later attended Harvard University as a
Kennedy Scholar. He joined the Labour Party
at the age of 16 but while at Oxford joined all
the main political societies, including the
Conservative Association, so that he could
"hear all the speeches at all the political
clubs".[1]
Economist
His career began as economic leader writer
at the Financial Times (1990–94) before his
appointment as an economic adviser to the
then shadow chancellor Gordon Brown
(1994–97).
In 1994, in a speech written for Gordon
Brown to give to an economics conference,
he used the phrase "post neoclassical endo-
genous growth theory",[2] which was picked
up on and gleefully recounted later by Mi-
chael Heseltine, who coined the humorous
quip: "There you have it! The final proof. La-
bour’s brand new, shining, modernists’ eco-
nomic dream. But it’s not Bro