Ed Balls flexes his muscles as opposition scrapper

"I went into the leadership election and didn't win that but I got the office," he jokes.

The suite of rooms housed leaders of the opposition until David Cameron decided to relocate to the Norman Shaw buildings across the road five years ago and Ed Miliband has decided to follow suit.

It is getting on for two months since the result of a tortuous four-month leadership contest, and the Morley and Outwood MP admits the experience was "exhausting".

There are "absolutely" no regrets about his campaign, bar the fact he did not win – and he might reconsider the decision to have a Ford Galaxy emblazoned with campaign livery if he did it again.

"I thought hard about whether to stand because I knew it was hard for me coming straight out of an election and Gordon Brown having lost," he said. "But I think the pretty widespread conclusion was I fought a really good campaign, many people said the best campaign."

By the time Mr Balls – at Mr Brown's side for nearly two decades first as economic adviser then as Cabinet colleagues – decided to enter the race a few weeks after the election, the Miliband brothers had declared their candidacy.

His admission that he had not prepared an acceptance speech is as close as he will come to saying he knew he would not win.

There is also pointed criticism of former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, long seen as the likely successor to Mr Brown until his brother's rise, when he said: "I hadn't spent two years planning".

"I don't think there was any point where I thought it was easy for me to win. There was some truth early on in the media view it was a two-horse race but it was also a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's fair enough, it's not sour grapes, it's just life."

After Ed Miliband's victory, Mr Balls came third in the Shadow Cabinet elections, behind only his wife Yvette Cooper and old ally John Healey, now the Shadow Health Secretary.

He appeared to make little secret of his desire to be Shadow Chancellor, but he paid the price for arguing during the leadership contest to slow down the pace of deficit reduction as the new leader turned instead to Alan Johnson, a popular figure keener to stick to the election pledge of halving the deficit in four years, to stop Labour being attacked as "deficit deniers".

Mr Balls's verdict on Messrs Miliband and Johnson as doing "fine" so far is hardly ringing endorsement, and although he says he is "focused on what I'm doing here" he refers to his campaign speech on the economy "which people still quote today".

But he says setting out a detailed coherent economic alternative to the coalition's plan to wipe out the 150bn deficit in four years "is something you take your time over" – and says getting Labour back into power is more important than personal jobs.

"I'm very pleased with the job I have," he said. "Talking and being concerned about and studying and being directly engaged in the management of our economy and the world economy is the thing I've spent 25 years doing and it would be silly for me to say I don't think it's a hugely important issue. I think it's a massive issue now.

"But when I go to my constituency and talk to people on the streets they talk about policing and whether they feel safe. They're both important issues. I care far more about whether we win the argument than who makes the speeches."

A fierce critic of the Conservatives, Mr Balls admits David Cameron has done "pretty well" so far in escaping blame for controversial coalition decisions.

"He's allowed George Osborne to be the focal point for the deeply destructive economic and social policies and Nick Clegg to be the focal point for countless broken promises," he said. "And so for him to sit above it while George Osborne and Nick Clegg take all the flak and the bullets is obviously in David Cameron's interests but I don't think he should be allowed to get away with that."

Given his argument that the pace of deficit reduction should be slowed, it is little surprise Mr Balls condemned the 20 per cent of cuts facing the Home Office budget. Cuts and controversial plans to introduce directly elected Police Commissioners are a "very dicey combination".

"The Home Secretary didn't do a good job fighting our corner," he said. "Of big front-line services – schools, health and police – police is by far the biggest loser from the Spending Review."

He draws on Police Federation and KPMG studies to claim police officer numbers in Yorkshire could fall by 1,700, and warns this week's revelation that long-serving senior officers in several forces will be forced to retire to cut costs will spread around the country.

"It's everything which was achieved in terms of police numbers and increased visibility ripped up in a couple of years," he said, "It is what civil servants would call brave, it is what real people would call foolish and misguided".

But what of the coalition's claims that the frontline can be protected by cutting red tape? "I'm all for reducing bureaucracy where you can, but not if it means people don't get convicted. If you are laying off tens of thousands of support staff, that's going to mean the administrative burden on police is going to go up not down. Instead of having a secretary it will mean a police officer having to write up his notes."

Having already wounded Education Secretary Michael Gove with attacks on schools policy in his former job, Mr Balls has shown he can be a thorn in the side of the coalition. Home Secretary Theresa May will know she has a fight on her hands.

I care far more about whether we win the argument than who makes the speeches.

'Fearful' reaction to poll proposal

PLANS to put elected Police Commissioners in place of police authorities are dangerous, Mr Balls warned.

The proposal has provoked opposition from many senior police officers. Critics fear the operational independence of police will be endangered and low turnout at elections could lead to extremists gaining control over force budgets and being able to set priorities.

"Over the last few weeks I've spoken to many people at all levels of the police, and the police authorities, experts who look from the outside," he said. "I'm still waiting to find anyone who thinks this is a good proposal."

He added: "If there's an individual elected on a mandate, if it's a resident of Leeds will this persuade the residents of Wakefield, Bradford and Kirklees policing will get equal status across all the four command areas? I'm fearful."