Ed Balls Salmond is coming nowehere near our first budget

Ed Balls has warned Alex Salmond he’ll be “going nowhere near” his first Budget if he’s Chancellor after May.

Balls described the prospect of consulting the SNP ahead of any Budget he sought to pass as part of a minority government as “utterly catastrophic”.

Last week Salmond, who hopes to return to Westminster as an MP in May, claimed he would “dictate” Balls’ first Budget because Labour would most likely rely on SNP votes to get it through parliament.

But Balls dismissed his comments.

Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Post he said: “I just laughed when I heard that. Alex Salmond is coming nowhere near our first Budget.

“The only way you can do the job of Chancellor is if people feel you’re making sometimes difficult decisions that try get the right balance across the UK, across the regions, across businesses.

“Alex Salmond exists in politics not to make a plan which is balanced for the UK. He exists in politics to undermine the UK and therefore no Budget Alex Salmond is ever involved in could ever be a Budget that works for Britain.

“For a Labour chancellor to be in a dialogue with AS on a Budget I think would be utterly catastrophic.”