Balls: I'd love to be Chancellor

The Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, has said he would "love" to become Chancellor and, if given the chance, lead the Labour Party.

"Would I like to be Chancellor at some point in the future? Of course I would. I'd love it," he told the New Statesman, before going on to say he had opposed suggestions he should be Chancellor in 2007. "I said at the time I'd never been in the cabinet, that I didn't think it was right for me to be Chancellor. That I wanted to go off and do a cabinet role of my own. And actually it was very good for me to have a policy area that wasn't about the Treasury," he said. "I don't want to change job. I'd rather carry on doing the job I'm doing. Alistair and I go back a long way and... I only have respect and 100 per cent support for him."

On rumours he would succeed Gordon Brown, he said: "I'm not going to say that I don't want to be leader of the Labour Party... But if I ended my political career not being [leader], would that be a failure? Absolutely not."