Ed Balls was never going to stay silent on the growing speculation about a humiliating sacking at the hands ruthless Ed Miliband. Dangerous subversive chatter over the Shadow Chancellor’s future has goaded the Balls spin machine into lashing out. As ever Kevin Maguire was the grateful recipient of the poison:

“Allies of the shadow chancellor whisper that he’d take his bat and balls away and retire to the back benches rather than swallow demotion to another portfolio.”

A pretty unsubtle threat from Ed. Read: Balls is not going to go quietly.