Balls: ‘no money’ note was silly

LABOUR was ‘silly’ to leave a note saying there was ‘no money’ left, Ed Balls said yesterday – as he insisted the party did not overspend in office.

Ed Miliband came under fire from voters last week over the infamous note left by outgoing Labour Treasury minister Liam Byrne in 2010 admitting the cupboard was bare after years of profligate spending.

Mr Balls has previously insisted the note – which was brandished on TV by David Cameron last week – was meant to be ‘a joke’.

But yesterday the Shadow Chancellor told BBC Radio Four’s The World This Weekend: ‘What happened in 2010 was that Liam Byrne wrote a silly note. It was intended to be silly and it was in fact a very silly note to write.’

Critics claim that Labour’s lavish spending left Britain badly placed to deal with the crash when it arrived.

Figures reveal the national debt soared by 43 per cent in the decade from 1997, adding more than £200 billion to the total.

But Mr Balls said the failure of bank regulation, rather than excessive spending, was to blame for the crash.

Meanwhile, Mr Balls was dubbed ‘Bouncing Balls’ last night after two cheques he wrote to a glazier were returned by his bank.

He had written two £150 cheques for work done on the £1million north London home he shares with his wife, Yvette Cooper. But the bank refused to honour the cheques and sent them both back to tradesman Brian Ford.

The first was sent back stamped with the words ‘no account’. After it was refused, Mr Balls sent a scribbled note on House of Commons notepaper with a second cheque.

The note read: ‘Here it is – sorry about that’. But the second cheque was also refused.

Mr Ford, 69, said the Shadow Chancellor had been ‘incredibly stupid’.

He added: ‘I was showing everyone and people did not believe it – everyone said “Bouncing Balls”.’

A spokesman for Mr Balls said last night: ‘This was a cheque book for an old account, which had been closed following a hacking attempt, and was used in error. The cheque didn’t bounce.’