Balls denies Cruddas split Ed Balls has denied a split within the centre of Labour after a senior MP criticised “cynical” policy announcements. Jon Cruddas, who is leading the party’s election policy review, was recorded at a Compass pressure group event lamenting the difficulties in pushing radical ideas through the party. He said there was a “profound dead hand at the centre” which hampered the adoption of bold reforms, according to a recording handed to the Sunday Times. However, Mr Balls insisted that the party was pursuing “big ideas” and suggested Mr Cruddas’ dissatisfaction was aimed more at media coverage of announcements. “I understand Jon Cruddas’ frustration about a newspaper headline. We’ve all been in a situation where a big report or a big speech is reduced down to just one policy,” the Shadow Chancellor told the Andrew Marr show. “Jon Cruddas, with me and Ed and others, has been working for months, years on big reforms. They’re going to come out in the next few months. People will see the policy review he has led has been a big deal.” Mr Balls pointed to Ed Miliband’s announcement today that Labour would transfer £30bn of funding from central to local government as evidence that the party was not afraid to take radical decisions. Announcing the policy in an article for the Sunday Times, the Labour leader also said he wanted a quarter of government contracts to go to small and medium-sized firms. The comments come ahead of the publication of Lord Adonis report about growth next week.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 21:39:05 +0000
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