Ed Balls blasts Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership as ‘leftist fantasy’ and reveals bad relationship with Ed Miliband
Former Shadow Chancellor does not hold back with his opinion of the Labour leader in his memoir
ED BALLS has slammed Jeremy Corbyn saying his Labour leadership style is a “leftist utopian fantasy” and also revealed his frosty relationship with Ed Miliband.
The former Shadow Chancellor said Corbyn did not listen to the electorate and said his approach was “devoid of connection to the reality of people’s lives”.
He lost his Morley & Outwood seat to the Tories in last year’s general election and suggests Corbyn will never be able to win an election if he refuses to listen to the public.
The 49-year-old made his comments in his memoir Speaking Out, which is being serialised in .
He said: "Refusing to listen to the electorate has never been a winning formula, any more than Jeremy Corbyn thinking the volume of the cheering from your core supporters is a reliable guide to wider public opinion.
"Caution will not win the day; but nor will Jeremy Corbyn’s leftist utopian fantasy, devoid of connection to the reality of people’s lives."
Mr Balls also claims former Labour leader Ed Miliband froze him out of critical decisions and ignored his advice on voters’ concerns about the deficit, immigration and the EU.
In his book he describes his horror at being told that Miliband had not included passages on reducing the deficit and immigration in his last party conference speech before the election.
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He writes: “The omissions were a symbol of Labour not being willing to face up to the problems the country was worried about, and proof that we were trying to brush difficult issues under the carpet. “We weren’t ready — and didn’t deserve — to return to government.
"It was incredibly frustrating.”
Balls added: "Having kept me at a distance in the run-up to the election in 2015, I think we probably only spoke twice in the whole four-week election campaign.
"That was astonishingly dysfunctional when I compare it to how Tony [Blair] and Gordon [Brown] worked.”
It comes after Mr Balls announced he will be a contestant in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing programme on the BBC.
He said: “I’d like to say I’m just really excited about learning to dance on TV, but the truth is I’m also scared to death.
“Making a speech in Parliament seems a piece of cake compared to this, but hopefully I can stick around for a couple of weeks, and have a lot of fun in the process.
“Strictly is a firm favourite in our living room, and it feels like a dream to be going on myself, especially for [judge] Len’s [Goodman] last series.”
Shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry yesterday attacked Labour’s attempts to oust Mr Corbyn.
The Islington South MP, who courted controversy after sneering at the White Van Man in 2014, said Labour’s national executive committee has attempted to rig the leadership contest by attempting to stop Mr Corbyn from standing.
Mr Corbyn will today announce a pledge to launch a “digital democracy manifesto” to “democratise the internet”.