Edward Michael "Ed" Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British Labour Party and Co-operative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton from 2005 to 2010 and for Morley and Outwood from 2010 to 2015. Balls was Chief Economic Advisor to the Treasury (1997–2004), Economic Secretary to the Treasury (2006–07) and served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in Gordon Brown's Government from 2007 to 2010. He was the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of his electoral defeat, which was described by Larry Elliott of The Guardian as the Portillo moment of the election. He is currently 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. He was appointed chairman of Norwich City F.C. in December 2015.

Balls is married to former Shadow Home Secretary and Labour MP Yvette Cooper. In June 2007, they became the first married couple to serve together in HM Cabinet when Cooper became Chief Secretary to the Treasury.