Ed Balls

When Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Balls became Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, serving until the 2010 general election, in which Labour was defeated after 13 years in government. Balls retained his seat, however, and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education under (temporary) Leader of the Opposition Harriet Harman.

In the 2010 Labour leadership election, which had been triggered by Brown's resignation as Leader of the Labour Party, Balls ran as a candidate but placed third. He was then appointed, by new Labour leader Ed Miliband, as Shadow Home Secretary. He served in this role until 2011, when he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role that he held until he was unseated at the 2015 general election.

Following his electoral defeat, he became a senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and a visiting professor to the Policy Institute at King's College London. He was appointed chairman of Norwich City F.C. in December 2015, a position he held until December 2018. In 2020, he was appointed Professor of Political Economy at King's College London.

Balls was a contestant on series 14 of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, surviving until week 10, and in 2021 was the winner in the BBC's Celebrity Best Home Cook. He is currently a presenter for the ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain as well as a host of the politics podcast Political Currency with George Osborne.