2016
Rt Hon Ed Balls - British Labour Party and Co-operative Party politician
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Economics in recognition of his significant contribution to public life in the UK and shaping the development of UK economic and social policy.
Ed Balls served in the British Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010 and subsequently became UK Shadow Chancellor from 2011 to 2015. He is now Senior Fellow at Harvard University and Visiting Professor at King’s College London. He is also a member of the Privy Council and an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford.
Born in Norwich in 1967, Ed’s family moved to Nottingham when he was a child and he became a student at Nottingham High School in the mid-1980s. He was inspired by his A level economics teacher there and went on to win a place to read economics and philosophy at Keble College Oxford, before undertaking postgraduate work in economics at Harvard. He then established himself as a leading financial journalist before getting the opportunity to put into practice his ideas on the economy and social justice after the Labour victory of 1997.
Ed now lives in London and Castleford with his wife, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, and their three children.