Ed Balls: Labour will eliminate budget deficit by 2020

Shadow chancellor says party will clear the current budget deficit by the end of the next parliament as Miliband prepares to launch Labour's manifesto

Ed Balls has delivered an unequivocal commitment that Labour would eliminate the current budget deficit and even deliver a surplus by 2020, in a toughening of the party's language on public finances.

The shadow chancellor moved to counter Tory accusations that Labour was failing to set a deadline as he said the end of the next parliament was the party's definitive "backstop" to eliminate the current budget deficit.