Ex-minister Ed Balls' leadership bid

Ed Balls launched his claim for the Labour hot-seat in Shropshire today by urging voters to "learn the lessons of history".

The former Government minister said £6 billion spending cuts by the coalition Government were "economic lunacy" and would lead to mass unemployment and depression.

He was speaking at the Grays Hotel in Telford, where party members had nominated him as the preferred candidate to succeed Gordon Brown as party leader.

Mr Balls said claims by Prime Minister David Cameron that such cuts were the only way forward were "nonsense".

He said: "We have got to prove there is an alternative to what they are trying with the economy.

"What they are saying is complete and utter nonsense and we must win that argument.

"The last politician to cut public spending was Margaret Thatcher and look what happened there - three million manufacturing jobs were lost and five years of mass unemployment.

"Before that it was sadly a Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald in 1931, who cut spending and support for the unemployed and plunged us into depression.

"The 1930s and the 1980s were the worst decades for unemployment and they were started by politicians saying exactly what these lot are now."

There were about 30 Labour members, including Telford MP David Wright, and Telford & Wrekin councillors, Kuldip Singh Sahota and Richard Overton.

Earlier Mr Balls had visited Wolverhampton to speak to members of the Commercial Workers' Union about plans to privatise Royal Mail.

He launched his bid just hours before fellow Labour leadership contender David Miliband was expected to claim that only attracting a new "coalition of voters" from across the political spectrum will result in electoral success.

Mr Miliband will use a major speech, billed by aides as the most important in his campaign, to promise an approach of "realistic radicalism" if he succeeds in the contest.

He denied claims that he was rounding on his elder brother and leadership rival, Ed, who has spoken of the need to re-engage with core Labour supporters.

By Wayne Beese