Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was in Cambridge last week, stealing media headlines from Nick Clegg who was in the city on the same day. Cambridge Labour Parliamentary spokesperson Daniel Zeichner arranged for Ed to meet key business leaders and representatives of the hi-tech sector at the Hauser Forum in West Cambridge, from where Ed did a live television interview on Look East. 

He told viewers that while Clegg was point-scoring, his visit was about listening to key players in Cambridge to ensure that the next Labour Government could make full use of the key position Cambridge holds in driving national recovery. At the discussion, many expressed anger at the current Government’s politically-driven clamp-down on visas for skilled overseas professionals. One business leader complained that it made it extremely difficult for global companies to respond quickly to sudden orders, another from an international software companies reported problems transferring key staff from site to site, while representatives from universities warned that in key countries the message had gone out that UK universities were no longer open to students from their country.

Daniel Zeichner followed up the visit with an appearance on Radio Cambridgeshire the following morning, where Tory Peterborough MP Stuart Jackson urged David Cameron to ‘up his game’. Daniel agreed with him on that! He then defended Labour’s record against the familiar accusations that it is ‘all Labour’s fault’ and stressed that this is the third visit Ed Balls has made to Cambridge recently, showing the significance that Labour gives to Cambridge and our region.