Balls: Cuts ‘both unfair and unnecessary’

Ed Balls speaks to the Labour conference, and makes his pitch for the shadow chancellor position:

“We must win the argument – as Alistair said on Monday – that the speed and severity of the coalition’s ‘ideological’ cuts are both unfair and unnecessary and will put the recovery at risk.

“So we must make the case, as Ed Miliband did yesterday, that the credible way to reduce the deficit and get the economic moving again is not to sacrifice jobs and growth – but to put jobs and growth first.”