Strictly Come Dancing 2016: Ed Balls admits he’s having a ‘mid-life crisis'

The former Shadow Chancellor will hit the dance floor for the first time this Saturday 
'Mid-life crisis': Ed Balls is embracing Strictly Come Dancing
Jay Brooks/BBC
Jennifer Ruby2 September 2016
The Weekender

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Ed Balls has admitted that he’s having a ‘mid-life crisis’ as he gears up to appear on the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The former Shadow Chancellor, who will take to the dance floor for the first time on Saturday night, has insisted that the only thing he can do it ‘embrace it’.

“Definitely a mid-life crisis, but I think you’ve got to embrace it and enjoy it,” he said on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

Discussing his dance floor prowess, he added: “I’m quite worried about the jive because my hips don’t really move in quite the right way, but I have a great professional partner, and I have three weeks to train.

Balls is keen to let his appearance on Strictly give more of a ‘human’ face to UK politics.

“But it’s a chance to say that politics is about human beings, and that those of us that come out of politics, in my sort of retirement phase, can do things that are quite exciting,” he said.

“We’ll get to see whether I can do something big again in the future, but in the mean time, what could possibly be bigger than going on Strictly?”

While Balls’ dance skills seemed rather stilted at the red carpet launch earlier this week, he might be more of a pro on the dance floor than he’s letting on.

In an extract from his autobiography, Speaking Out, which is set for release next week, Balls lets slip that he was an entrant in an ‘inter-college ballroom dancing competition’ while he was at Oxford.

The former politician joins contestants including Daisy Lowe, Laura Whitmore, Danny Mac, Louise Redknapp, Will Young and Greg Rutherford on this year’s line-up.

The Strictly Come Dancing launch show kicks off on Saturday at 6.50pm.

Strictly Come Dancing 2016 Line-up

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