Ed Balls
Back to client list »Ed Balls is a broadcaster, writer and economist. He is a regular presenter on ITV’s flagship breakfast show, Good Morning Britain, and co-hosts a weekly podcast, Political Currency, with former Chancellor George Osborne. Ed is Professor of Political Economy at King’s College, London, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-Chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
His latest BBC series, ‘Inside the Care Crisis with Ed Balls’ was broadcast on BBC 2 in November 2021. Ed previously presented the BBC TV series ‘Travels in Trumpland: with Ed Balls’ which was broadcast in July 2018 and a second series ‘Travels in Euroland with Ed Balls’ aired on BBC 2 in January 2020. He presented the BBC TV series ‘What Britain Buys And Sells In A Day’, which broadcast in October 2019, and has appeared regularly on BBC’s The One Show, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4. Ed was part of the core ITN Election night team in 2017 and 2019 and appeared weekly on Channel 4’s The Andrew Neil Show.
Ed, a former Member of Parliament, was UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2011-2015) and served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007-2010). He was the UK Minister for Financial Services (2006-2007) and the Chief Economic Adviser to the UK Treasury (1999-2004) during which time he was Chair of the IMFC Deputies and UK G20 Deputy. While Shadow Chancellor he was co-Chair with Larry Summers of the Center for American Progress Inclusive Prosperity Commission.
Ed is married to Yvette Cooper MP. They have three children and live in London and Castleford. His interests include learning the piano, running, cooking, sailing, drumming and supporting Norwich City, where he is a Vice-President and former Club Chairman. Ed was the winner of the BBC’s Celebrity Best Home Cook in February 2021. He was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing 2016 and was nominated for a Bafta for TV moment of the year in 2016 and as part of the ITN General Election team in 2017 and 2019. In February 2019, Ed climbed Kilimanjaro with eight other well-known climbers, raising over £2m for Comic Relief
Ed’s second book, ‘Appetite: a Memoir in Recipes of Family and Food’ was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2021 and was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller. His previous book ‘Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics’ was published by Penguin Random House in 2016 and was also ranked a Top Ten bestseller.
Ed Balls is available for after dinner and conference speaking.
Find out more about Ed on his website
Twitter @edballs
Instagram: @edballs
“Excellent – perfectly pitched at the audience, engaging and entertaining”.
“Feedback from the event has been excellent. Ed’s session was fantastic and touched on all the topics they wanted to discuss. It was nice to include some fun, light-hearted questions as well, which kept the audience engaged.”
Excellent, warm, entertaining, funny – customers loved him.
“You were absolutely brilliant and had the whole room captivated. We are incredibly grateful; you were so gracious with your time and willing to take pictures with so many of the guests.”
“Ed was amazing! Such a good speaker, so many stories, great sense of humour – it really made our event.”
The balance was really good and your background of understanding about the industry made everyone very attentive – the feedback has been very positive.
Ed was entertaining, engaging and so incredibly informative – it was a highly valued event and we have had so much positive feedback.
Thanks for a super contribution – the feedback we have had is wonderful.
As well as your professionalism you were also most generous with your time and availability for people, and this was greatly appreciated.
A brief note to thank you for joining our lunch yesterday and entertaining us so well. I thought your speech was superb. It struck just the right balance using humour to counter some very serious and well delivered messages. The feedback from those present, without exception, has been fantastic. Many said it was the best lunch we have ever held so goodness knows how I get close to that next year.
The feedback from those present, without exception, has been fantastic. Many said it was the best lunch we have ever held so goodness knows how I get close to that next year.
Thanks for doing a great job for us at the awards. I heard nothing but favourable feedback from the room.
Please do pass on our thanks to Ed, on behalf of Goldman Sachs and Oxford Said. Ed’s fireside chat with Margot James was incredibly well received, feedback from both our alumni and client has been very complimentary. Their insights provided a great launch pad for the start of our event; both setting the scene for the economic outlook and providing our small businesses with strategies to prosper through these difficult times.
Ed was fantastic. Really easy going, mingled during the drinks reception and his speech was spot on. Perfect mix of funnies and inside tales from Westminster to Strictly. The client loved him and there was no shortage of guests queuing up for a selfie afterwards.
I’d like to relay our sincere thanks to Ed for delivering such an exceptional and enjoyable speech. Feedback from attendees was incredibly positive, and it was clear Ed had taken the time to understand the Association and the audience, as well as provide the perfect balance of serious insight and humorous anecdotes.
You were absolutely brilliant last night Ed. Thank you for coming and being so entertaining, engaging and speedy with the presentations! Top class.
The conference was a great success, and Ed was the perfect way to round off the day. He really captured the light-hearted, relaxed feel of the evening, and had the audience enraptured the whole way through. He did a fab job and was incredibly well received.
Ed was even better than we had hoped he would be. Engaging, open, honest, funny and very interesting. Please pass on our thanks to him.
Good match for conference attendees – good mixture of “serious funny” and “silly funny” stories. Managed to involve top table attendees which makes them feel special. Would definitely recommend for similar conferences. His approach of 70% humour and insight and 30% broad/high level politics was a great mix for our crowd, so much so that groups of tables wanted to mingle with him after the speeches.
Thank you for the hugely valuable part you played in our Leaders’ Forum. This was a new format for us that relied on enthusiastic, insightful and articulate speakers and you passed with flying colours! We have had very positive feedback and I greatly appreciate all the time and thought you put in to our event.
I just wanted pass on our sincere thanks for Ed participating in our event, I think we can definitely say he was received very well by our audience and we are really grateful for the additional time Ed spent with everyone before and after his session. I know a lot of speakers would not have invested this additional time. I will be delighted to recommend him for other speaking opportunities.
On behalf of all of us at Jefferies I would like to thank you for your excellent speech last night at The Ned and for being so generous with your time afterwards. You managed to get the tone exactly right for the occasion. We have received lots of complimentary messages from people who were there and I think you have won a number of new fans. It was a huge pleasure to meet you.
Ed was fantastic without doubt one of the best they’ve had over the years. He was charming, funny, polite and accommodating. His speech hit exactly the right note, he even managed to bring soft drinks into it. He touched on strictly and politics. He did a Q& A which went on for ages and had some random questions all of which he answered without hesitation. He posed for lots of photos, the women in the room absolutely loved him and he had a lot of Strictly posed photos. She asked if she could get him a car at the end and he said no don’t worry I’ll hop on the tube. They were so impressed with him.
Ed was a great speaker. Very down to earth, charming, engaging, knowledgeable and he delivered a great speech. He is definitely up there with the nicest speakers I’ve had the pleasure to work with, an absolute joy!
I am writing to thank you for joining us at the ABI’s Annual Conference 2022.
I was delighted that you were able to share your reflections on your time in government and your insights on the current political landscape. Feedback from attendees has been exceptional and your conversation with Louise was the perfect close to the day. Your participation clearly contributed significantly to what was a highly successful event, and I would like to thank you on behalf of the ABI and our members.
A note to thank you for an extremely enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening speech at last night NFDA Ball. All attendees have been extremely complimentary.
I wished to record with you my personal thanks for speaking at the conference this year. All of the feedback that I heard was extremely positive and I think that you pitched your talk perfectly. Thank you also for your good humour at the drinks beforehand and in dealing with the inevitable requests for selfies.
You were absolutely brilliant last night Ed. Thank you for coming and being so entertaining, engaging and speedy with the presentations! Top class.