Ed Balls is a liability for Labour

The shadow chancellor has been utterly discredited by Britain's economic recovery, says Matthew Lynn. Labour must act before it's too late.

It may not be much, but by the dismal standards of the last five years, the UK economy finally shows signs of revival. Growth is picking up, house prices are buoyant, the deficit has stopped rising and at least one bank may soon return to private hands. It's hardly a boom but it's not a full-blow depression either. Just about everyone feels pleased about that.

Except for one man. The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, staked his reputation on the argument that government spending cuts would lead to a fresh recession. He has been proved decisively wrong. The only issue now is whether Labour leader Ed Miliband will let an increasingly discredited shadow chancellor ruin whatever slim chance he has of winning an election that is now less than two years away or whether he will get rid of him.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.