Ed Balls warns further devolution will be a ‘very complex task’

Smith Commission proposals dubbed ‘complex’.

Ed Balls has moved to pour cold water on the Smith Commission proposals warning further devolution for Scotland will be “a very complex task” and that there’s still “lots of detail to work out”.

The shadow chancellor conceded exactly how the Smith proposals would work, and the impact they would have on his budgets should he take over at the Treasury in May, is yet to be established.

He said: “I’m not hiding that this is a very complex task and it’s not going to be easy but we’ll make it work.

“It’s going to be tough because there’s lots of detail to work out but we’ll do it and we’ll make it work.”

He said a Labour government would introduce a Scotland Act containing the Smith proposals only after it had moved to abolish the bedroom tax.

Balls said: “The first thing the next Labour chancellor will do is abolish the bedroom tax in our first budget because it’s unfair and perverse.

“As far as I can see Alex Salmond carried on the bedroom tax even it when it wasn’t needed because that suited his political agenda.”

And in a sign of how worried Labour are by the SNP he added: “If you want to get the bedroom tax abolished we need to make sure you get a Labour government and a Labour chancellor to do it.”