Ed Balls
Biography
Ed Balls is an MP and key advisor to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, whose department will play a central role in making decisions on any new nuclear power stations. Balls was elected as Labour MP for the Normanton constituency on 5 May 2005. [1]
He is married to Housing and Planning Minister Yvette Cooper. [2]
Balls himself has said that nuclear 'is not a solution' to energy security problems. He strongly backs the coal industry because he represents 'a constituency with a strong mining tradition and with miners still working in Selby, Kellingley and elsewhere.' He adds: 'I come from an important coal-producing region: I think that a quarter of UK coal is produced in Yorkshire.' [3]
Links to the nuclear industry
Balls' father-in-law is Tony Cooper, a member of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and former chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association. [4] [5]
External links
- ^ Biography on Ed Balls' website, undated, accessed February 2006.
- ^ House of Commons Debate on the future of the coal industry, October 12, 2005.
- ^ Biography on Yvette Cooper's website, undated, accessed February 2006.
- ^ Tony Cooper's biography on Nuclear Decommissioning Authority website, undated, accessed February 2006.
