Ed Balls

The write-up in today’s Sunday Times of the weekly, reflective meetings I co-chair with Ed Balls is not only inaccurate, it’s nonsensical and pretty offensive. In the all the months, I’ve worked closely with Ed, I’ve only ever seen him totally, professionally, focused on helping build a better country.

He is a first-rate colleague to work with, he’s superb at his job, and that’s why the Opposition fear him. But the real point here is that media gossip and invention like this story, are simply not going to blur what is our total, unremitting and unrelenting focus on fighting back against the worst global downturn for generations. That is what the British public pay us to go to work to do – and we are absolutely determined we won’t be knocked off course.