Why tinkling Ed Balls could tip-toe his way to the Strictly title

Ed Balls MP - (C) BBC - Photographer: Guy Levy

STRICTLY judge Craig Revel Horwood reckons Ed Balls could go all the way this year.

And winning would be a massive boost for the nation’s health.

The former Shadow Chancellor followed up his Gangnam Style routine by being lowered from the ceiling, tinkling the ivories on the way to perform a jive to Great Balls Of Fire at the show’s Blackpool extravaganza last night.

“He is waving a flag for all the coach potatoes at home, who sit on their bottoms doing nothing,” Craig told The Sunday Post.

“I can only see that as a good thing. People at home will be watching him and thinking, ‘I can probably do that’ and that might encourage them to actually get off their backsides and go and do a dance class.”

Craig has been Ed’s harshest critic and admits that “technically he’s terrible”.

But although there have been calls for Ed to follow in John Sergeant’s footsteps and quit the show, Craig’s not joining any clamour.

“No, he shouldn’t leave,” he insists. “Ann Widdecombe, who can’t hear music at all and never danced once in time, got to week 11.

“Ed tries really hard to learn the dancing and is really good at the timing, which is bizarre.

“I think he’s hysterical. I wouldn’t care if he won, it’s up to the public.

“I would care more if I was putting money on him and going to take him on a Tango Tour Of The World but I’m not going to do that.”

But with tonight’s results show seeing one more couple departing, leaving just six celebrities, Craig says a Balls surge will make for tough choices.

“We’re going to run into a situation over the next couple of weeks where we have two extremely good dancers in the dance-off and Ed Balls will probably go through,” he admits.

“Then we have very difficult decisions to make. I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to that, but I fear it probably will.

“The competition this year has been an absolute sensation and I’ve had the most fun of any series.”

Strictly Come Dancing: The Results, BBC1, 7.15pm.

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