When Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Balls became Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, serving until the 2010 general election; Labour were defeated after 13 years in government.

Following his electoral defeat, he became a senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and a visiting professor to the Policy Institute at King's College London.

[7][8][9] He was in the school choir, and played violin in the orchestra, where the head of music was Kendrick Partington,[10] the organist of St Peter's Church, Nottingham.

[12] Raised as an Anglican[13] he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a First – according to John Rentoul in The Independent – ahead of David Cameron.

[16] Balls was a founding member of The Steamers, an all-male drinking club, and suffered embarrassment when a contemporary photo of him wearing Nazi uniform appeared in the papers.

After the Boundary Commission proposed changes which would abolish his constituency, Balls ran a campaign, in connection with the local newspaper the Wakefield Express,[22] to save the seat and, together with the three other Wakefield MPs (his wife Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh and Jon Trickett), fought an unsuccessful High Court legal action against the Boundary Commission's proposals.

[26] In September 2007, with his wife Yvette Cooper, he was accused by Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker of "breaking the spirit of Commons rules" by using MPs' allowances to help pay for a £655,000 home in north London.

[29] In June 2008, they were referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over allegations that they were claiming expenses for what was effectively their main home in London.

[30] When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, Balls was promoted to Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

[32] In October 2008, Balls announced that the government had decided to scrap SAT tests for 14-year-olds,[33] a move which was broadly welcomed by teachers, parent groups and opposition MPs.

[37] Prior to her dismissal, Shoesmith had been widely praised in her former role as Director of Education, though she was handicapped by having no social work background.

[39] Shoesmith subsequently brought a Judicial review against Balls, Ofsted and Haringey Council[39] and a series of appeals followed.

[36] The Conservative Opposition supported Balls' right to dismiss her "because ministers want to uphold the principle that they – and not the courts, through judicial review – should be responsible for their decisions".

[40] She received compensation as her sacking was deemed "procedurally unfair"[41] and the Department for Children, Schools and Families was subsequently refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

[46] Balls was the third candidate to secure the minimum of 33 nominations from members of the Parliamentary Labour Party in order to enter the leadership race.

[48] As Shadow Chancellor, Balls regularly appeared with Miliband at joint press conferences relating to Labour policy.

The plan was described as aimed at helping the UK economy, and would have involved reinstating the bonus tax to fund building more social homes, bringing forward long-term investment, cutting VAT to 17.5%, cutting VAT on home improvements to 5% for one year, and instigating a one-year National Insurance break.

[49] Balls declared in January 2012 that he would continue with the public sector pay freeze which led to opposition from Len McCluskey.

Conservative MPs became unhappy after Bank of England deputy governor, Paul Tucker denied encouragement to pressurise Barclays with Andrea Leadsom saying Osborne had made a mistake and should apologise.

The incident is now celebrated as "Ed Balls Day" every 28 April, with followers retweeting his original message and commemorating the occasion in other ways.

[57][58] When invited to send something to be auctioned to raise funds for the party in 2015, Balls submitted a framed, signed printout of the tweet.

He and Brown have differed from the Blairites in being keen to stress their roots in Labour Party intellectual traditions such as Fabianism and the co-operative movement, as well as their modernising credentials in policy and electoral terms.

In a New Statesman interview in March 2006, Martin Bright writes that Balls "says the use of the term 'socialist' is less of a problem for his generation than it has been for older politicians like Blair and Brown, who remain bruised by the ideological warfare of the 1970s and 1980s".

[26] After leaving politics, Balls was appointed Senior Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and also became visiting professor of King's College, London.

[79] Writing about his performance in the sixth week Halloween special, Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph said "The dad-dancing politician got a standing ovation from the studio audience, chuckles from the judges and enough viewer votes to keep him out of yet another dance-off.

He also described Jeremy Corbyn's leadership project as a "leftist utopian fantasy, devoid of connection to the reality of people's lives".

[89] In May 2021, in celebration of "Lifelong Learning Week", Balls hosted a special event at adult education provider City Lit alongside its Principal, Mark Malcomson.

Balls received a City Lit Lifetime Fellowship Award as recognition for the support and inspiration he provided to the organisation and its students.

[95] On 17 January 2024, Balls received publicity for accidentally kicking Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid in the head during a segment on travel etiquette.

[96] On 5 August 2024, Balls interviewed MP Zarah Sultana on the then ongoing anti-immigrant riots in the UK, in which he repeatedly interrupted and verbally clashed with her when she argued the unrest should be condemned as "Islamophobic".