Supporters
Across the country Labour party members, MPs, trade unionists, councillors and other elected representatives have all voiced their support for Ed Balls to lead the Labour Party. Below are some reasons why...
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We’ll be updating this page regularly, so please tell us why you’re backing Ed by emailing contact@edballs4labour.org with your words or upload a video to You Tube and send us the link.
Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary
"Ed Balls has a sense of purpose and vision that can rebuild the Labour Party. He values the contribution that trade unions make to the country and to the Labour Party. We also believe that he is tough minded enough to lead the country and are certain that he is the right leader for Labour."
Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London
"I could go to him when I was Mayor and meet him one on one, not surrounded by civil servants and that is how we got Crossrail. My preference is Balls because whoever we select might be Prime Minister next year and, of all of the candidates, he is most ready."
Kate Green, MP for Stretford & Urmston
“Ed doesn’t just talk about his values – he does so with real passion and he fights for them too. Whether it’s getting more funding to tackle child poverty or being the first and only cabinet minister to pay the living wage in his department, Ed gets things done.”
Sharon Hodgson MP
"He is strong and decisive yet inclusive with colleagues. Someone who always makes time to listen and hear your views whilst offering solutions to any concerns or problems. He is hugely intelligent and passionately driven towards achieving our Labour goals of a fairer more just society yet he is warm, friendly and collegiate and I truly believe he will make an excellent Leader of our Party and ultimately a great Prime Minister of our country."
Vernon Coaker MP
“The press often say that Ed Balls is divisive and unwilling to listen. This is not the man that I know. Yes, he will argue forcefully for our party and its policies and views and that is what I want in any future Leader. I think in the months and years ahead we will need someone with the strength to stand against what we all expect to come.”
Cllr Darren Cooper, Leader of Sandwell Council
“Ed has shown a commit- ment to local and regional government. His leadership on improving schools and childrens services, has made a massive difference. I’m backing Ed Balls.”
Kerry McCarthy MP
“He has had hundreds if not thousands of those "on the doorstep" conversations. It's why he gets it -- because he gets them: his people, his voters”
Ellie Gellard
“Ed has the hunger, the drive and the fire in the belly to lead our party back into Downing Street."
Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Former MP
"I want the next leader of the Labour Party to be someone who understands that if we are to have a Labour government again, we need to win places like my former Portsmouth North seat. We are electing not just a leader of the Party, but a current leader of the Opposition and a future Prime Minister. For me, Ed ticks all those boxes — he’ll stand up for Party members, he will be a formidable force against David Cameron at Prime Ministers Questions and he has the intellect and gravitas to lead our country."
John Healey MP, Shadow housing minister
“I want a Labour leader who makes day-to-day decisions firmly but with no fuss but also gets the really big judgements right, and who talks less like a politician and more like everyone else. That’s why I’m backing Ed.”
Simon Burgess, Vice Chair, National Policy Forum
“Each time I’ve met Ed, either campaigning or at policy forums, he’s been focused, attentive and he’s really listened. That’s why I’m supporting Ed to be our next leader.”
Stephanie Peacock, NEC Youth Rep & Unite activist
“Ed really impressed me at the youth hustings. He was the first candidate to call for a graduate tax to replace top-up fees and back a full time Youth Officer at Labour HQ. Ed gets it and he’s the right person for the future of our party.”
Norma Stephenson, Labour & Unison activist
“Labour needs a leader completely committed to the trade union link and protecting public services. Ed Balls has shown by his actions - including his active support for school support staff – that he’s what we need.”
Cllr Shaukat Ali, Dudley North CLP
“The Diversity Fund that Ed Balls is promoting is just what we need to improve the representation of ethnic minorities in local councils as well as Parliament. That’s why I’m supporting him.”
Jim Knight
“Ed is now clearly the best candidate to take the fight to the Tories. He is the one to dismantle the ConDem coalition and prevent them seeing out the five years they want of this Parliament. He is also now the best to lead the party through the election that follows and return the party to power.”
Jane Morgan, new member Salisbury CLP
“I know Ed will stand up for ordinary people, the young and the vulnerable. He shares my values of fairness and equality, that’s why I’ve just joined Labour and why I’m backing Ed.”
Peter Hunt, Co-op Party General Secretary, 98-08
“Ed is a determined and principled politician. He is also a loyal and honest friend of the co-operative movement – his record as a Minister promoting the co-operative agenda is unparalleled. Co-operative members should seize this opportunity to support Ed.”
Chris Gale, NEC member of Labour Animal Welfare Society (personal capacity)
“Ed Balls is committed to the compassionate agenda of animal welfare and making a better society, he has my vote for leader of our party.”
Denise Robertson
"I’ve worked with him on several issues concerning children and the reality is impossible to equate with the terrible press he gets. I’ve found him to be fair-minded, able to take criticism and rethink decisions, above all, dedicated to the welfare of children. I’m not a Labour Party member so I don’t have a vote. If I did, I think it would go to Mr Balls."
Sarah Jane Cook, Portsmouth North CLP
“The Labour Party needs dynamic and forthright leadership. It needs a leader with personality, drive, enthusiasm, experience and a will to win. For me Ed Balls is this leader. I believe he will fight for fairness and represent those without a voice.”
Sally Bercow
"Ed Balls knows that Labour failed to grasp the extent of people’s concerns over housing, immigration, welfare reform and tuition fees. He has a burning desire to put things right; to fight against unfairness and to do the best for ordinary working people."
MPs and candidates in marginal seats in the south
“We are all supporting Ed Balls because he best understands what we need to do to regain the trust of voters we lost in the south… He understands our area and the hopes, fears and aspirations of the voters we lost this time round. And we believe he is the candidate best placed to set out a credible economic alternative to the deflationary mistakes being made by the Tories and Lib Dems, campaign hard to shorten the life of this coalition government and win again in the south and across the country.”
