Ed Balls is the Labour MP for Normanton and Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, at the new department formed by Gordon Brown in June 2007.

Ed was previously Economic Secretary to the Treasury and was elected to Parliament in 2005. He is an active member of the TGWU, Unison and the Co-operative Party and is Labour’s PPC for the new Morley and Outwood constituency.

Before his election to Parliament, Ed worked as economic advisor to Gordon Brown both in Government and opposition, and was Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury from 1999 to 2004.

Ed previously worked as an economics leader writer and columnist for the Financial Times and also contributed to a number of publications related to Britain's economy.

He was educated at Nottingham High School before graduating from Keble College, Oxford and the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He was then a teaching fellow at Harvard's Department of Economics.

Ed is married to Labour MP for Pontefract and Castleford, Yvette Cooper. They have three children and live in Castleford.