Balls and Brown in near-death jet flight
FORMER Labour MP Ed Balls has told how he nearly died in a plane crash with Gordon Brown more than a decade ago.
Mr Balls, who is to appear in BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing show, said that the two politicians were on a Concorde flight when it began to plummet from the sky in 2002, at a time when Mr Brown was chancellor.
However, Mr Balls, who was the Treasury’s chief adviser before serving as shadow chancellor, said the former Prime Minister wanted to finish writing a speech – despite the risk that they might perish.
Mr Balls, who lost his seat in last year’s General Election, wrote about his neardeath experience in his forthcoming autobiography Speaking Out.
Now the chairman of English football club Norwich City, Mr Balls wrote: “Gordon said ‘well, here we are’ and I said: ‘Yep, maybe this is it’. We had a nice conversation about our families, about the good things we thought we’d done in our lives and what we’d be sorry to leave behind.”
Mr Balls went on to say that, when the plane got to 24,000 feet, Mr Brown asked him: ‘What do you think? Should we finish my speech?’.
“I looked at him with incredulity” said Mr Balls.
“When we landed, it was the most relieved I have ever felt on touching solid ground and I never got on Concorde again.
“But I also discovered that Gordon Brown was a fine companion when facing imminent death.”