Ed was UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 2011-2015 and served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families 2007-2010. He was the UK Minister for Financial Services 2006-2007 and the Chief Economic Adviser to the UK Treasury 1997-2004 during which time he was Chair of the IMFC Deputies and UK G20 Deputy.
Ed studied economics and philosophy at Keble College, Oxford, and economics and politics (MPA) at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Ed was a teaching fellow in the Department of Economics, Harvard from 1988 to 1990 and a leader writer and columnist at the Financial Times from 1990 to 1994 where he was the Wincott Young Financial Journalist of the Year. He has also written regularly for the Guardian, New Statesman and Tribune and co-authored a number of books, papers, articles and pamphlets.
Ed’s popular BBC TV series ‘Travels in Trumpland: with Ed Balls’ was broadcast in July 2018 and a second series ‘Travels in Euroland with Ed Balls’ will air on BBC 2 early 2020. Ed has also presented the BBC TV series ‘What Britain Buys And Sells In A Day’ with Ade Adepitan and Cherry Healey which broadcast in October 2019 and offered expert political analysis alongside George Osbourne for the ITV election night coverage for 2017 and 2019 general elections.
He has also appeared in a number of other television programmes including being a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing 2016, competing in Sport Relief Celebrity Bake-off, being a guest chair on Have I Got New for You, and has made guest appearances on Would I Lie to You, Insert Name Here, The Michael McIntyre Show and QI. He is also a regular guest on This Week, Peston on Sunday. In February 2019, Ed climbed Kilimanjaro with eight other well-known climbers, raising over £2m for Comic Relief.
Ed is Vice President of Action for Stammering Children, a Patron of the British Stammering Association and a Patron of Whizz-Kidz. He has run the London Marathon three times since 2011, raising over £160,000 for WhizzKidz and Action for Stammering Children. He is also the co-Chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation and Vice President and former Chairman of Norwich City Football Club.
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