'Faltering' Balls makes a credibility crisis for Labour

Ed Balls found himself lost for words when it came to replying to George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

"Whatever the opposite is of star quality, Ed Balls has it in spades," says Jenni Russell in The Times. "Faltering, red-faced, shouting to be heard above his hecklers", he "made a complete hash" of his response to the chancellor's Autumn Statement.

The irony is that his analysis is right. Britain would have been "better served by a Keynesian burst of investment". Growth is weaker than George Osborne anticipated. But this wasn't the time to repeat the same old arguments.

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