Ed Balls warns Labour MPs that launching a breakaway party if Jeremy Corbyn wins the leadership contest would be ‘disastrous’
LAUNCHING a breakaway Labour Party made up of MPs opposed to Jeremy Corbyn would be “disastrous”, Ed Balls has warned.
The former Cabinet minister said it would be "crazy" for his colleagues to provoke a semi-split with swathes of the parliamentary party refusing to accept Mr Corbyn as leader if he is re-elected by the membership.
"That would be a disastrous thing to do,” said Mr Balls, who lost his seat in last year's general election.
“To walk away from challenges is a mistake. You've got to stay around the table - whether that's in Europe arguing your case, whether that's as a minister when you don't get the job you want - you've got to stay and prove you can make the change.
"And I think, at the moment, people would think it was crazy to walk away from Labour's history, its traditions, its values.”
The ex-Shadow Chancellor was speaking to the BBC ahead of his appearance on this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing, where he is favourite to be voted out first.
But he told Radio 4’s Today programme Labour MPs opposed to Mr Corbyn should fight for what they believed in.
RELATED STORIES:
"Stay and continue to fight to make the Labour Party the voice of working people around the country, and I don't think that can done from the extremes," he said.
"I think we could be facing a general election in months, and I think the Labour Party has got to think hard about how it organises for that.
"I think, at the moment, to walk away from our responsibility as MPs, and as a party, to be the effective opposition when we have got such big decisions to make on Europe, I think that would be a terrible thing to do."
But he admitted his appearance on the celebrity dancing show was part of a mid-life crisis, and said he fears his hips may not be up to jiving.
Mr Balls said he missed the purpose of politics, but needed to try new things, and wanted to show that politicians are human.
"Definitely a mid-life crisis, but I think you've got to embrace it and enjoy it," he added.
"I'm quite worried about the jive because my hips don't really move in quite the right way, but I have a great professional partner, and I have three weeks to train.
"But it's a chance to say that politics is about human beings, and that those of us that come out of politics, in my sort of retirement phase, can do things that are quite exciting.
"We'll get to see whether I can do something big again in the future, but in the meantime, what could possibly be bigger than going on Strictly?" Mr Balls said.