I'm a team player, Ed Balls insists

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, the Shadow Education Secretary reveals he always remained confident of keeping his Morley and Outwood seat at the election – where his majority was slashed to just over 1,000 – despite a massive Tory campaign but says he was prepared for "all eventualities".

Listing Labour's mistakes, he calls for tuition fees to be replaced by a graduate tax and says the party had more to do on immigration and council housing. He also says he should have listened closer to "anecdotal" warnings about the impending school SATs marking fiasco two years ago.

And he says it would be "very good" for the party if Ms Abbott gets the 33 nominations required to stand: "I've had lots of people come up to me and say I want to support you and actively campaign for you for the leadership but given that you're through the 33 my party or I want to nominate someone else, and my reaction to that is absolutely fine."

So far only Mr Balls, David Miliband and brother Ed – the Doncaster North MP – have enough nominations to stand. Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has 20, John McDonnell seven and Ms Abbott five.

In his Westminster office Mr Balls reflects on his battle to hold on to his seat against a Tory campaign that saw David Cameron visiting twice, admitting: "I quite like challenge of the Tories having a go at me."

As an economic adviser to Gordon Brown and a Minister, Mr Balls has been at the heart of New Labour since 1994 and was in the thick of the action as battle raged between Tony Blair and Mr Brown although contrary to the image painted of him he insists he wanted the two men to "bring it together".

Asked whether he feels his image as a deeply tribal politician is unfair, he replies: "Of course I do, but that's life and in the end unless you believe that the truth prevails over myth you can't really succeed in politics."

He adds. "This is a chance for me to say this is who I am, this is what I stand for, this is what I'm good at. The big positive I've got is that pretty much everyone who's worked for me in a ministerial job is supporting me because they know under pressure I can make decisions, I'm collegiate, I'm supportive, I give people their space and respect other people's views. I'm very much a team player."

He promises to be "100 per cent supportive" of whoever wins, but desperately hopes to become the first leader from a Yorkshire constituency since Hugh Gaitskell, who died in 1963.

Although he wants to look to the future he admits athat consideration over "who's got the right policies, who can take the right decisions, who can stand their ground, who under pressure doesn't get knocked over" will be framed by the past.

He adds: "When people look at me and say is he the kind of person who can lead and cope with pressure and make the right calls, I think they will probably look at Bank of England independence, the National Insurance rise for the health service and (not joining] the Euro and say actually they were quite important calls."

But there have been mistakes too, he admits, including hitting low earners by removing the 10p tax band and going to war in Iraq.

If he wins and becomes Labour leader, he vows to challenge the coalition's economic plans, balance a pro-European stance with fairness to families and reform public services without "peddling the myth" that the private sector is always better.