John Healey, I'd vote for Ed Balls to lead the way for Labour

Over the next three months, Labour's nearly-famous five will debate with the public, with the media, with Labour and union members – and with each other.

The first of the 50 candidate hustings are already over, with wide-ranging views on what are Labour's biggest achievements in government, why we lost the election and how we must now change for the future. Thankfully, there's no sign of Labour tearing itself apart as we've done before when losing office and going into opposition.

But the toughest tests lie beyond the Labour leadership contest for the winner. Leader of the Official Opposition is often described as the worst job in politics. It is not for the faint-hearted.

The Tory-led Government has launched a spin onslaught claiming the economy and public finances are worse than they thought, when in fact official figures show the deficit is smaller and borrowing is lower – with more people in work and more firms paying more tax – than at the Budget before the election.

They are softening up the country for very severe cuts, which are more about the ideology of a smaller state than the economics of a smaller deficit. And, despite David Cameron promising to be "open, responsible and fair", the first round of cuts are already aimed beyond London and the South East at the poorest areas and poorest families.

Our new leader must be tough enough both to take the challenge to the Tory-Liberal Government countrywide and to make the

changes needed to Labour and the unions to bring the country behind

us again.

The candidates must convince people they can lead in Opposition and prepare for Government as well.

I know all five candidates. I've worked with them all and seen them all around the Cabinet table, except Diane Abbott. She will definitely

liven up debate but most Labour MPs have seen more of her on late night TV than at late night votes in the House of Commons, certainly when support for her own government was needed.

Andy Burnham has an easy personal charm. Ed Miliband is the most natural communicator. David Miliband brings authority and breadth from his former job as Foreign Secretary. All three are good candidates. All three could do the job. But I'm backing Ed Balls.

I go back a long way with Ed. We've worked together closely for more than 12 years.

He was the driving force behind Gordon Brown's decisions to establish Bank of England independence, to stay out of the euro, to boost the role of regional development agencies and to forge international support for fully writing-off the debt that for decades had crippled the world's poorest developing countries.

As Children's Secretary, he withstood the tabloid assault on frontline social workers to defend the difficult job they do and back better training and pay with the money to make this happen. He's been the first leadership contender to confront the new Government

over their economic plans and VAT rises, and the first to say that

Labour has to hear what people tell us on tuition fees and Eastern European workers.

And away from Westminster, I've been with Ed entirely and equally at ease with pensioners in Normanton, school students in Rotherham, Yorkshire business leaders in Leeds and Britain's top 20 economists in No 11 Downing Street.

I want a Labour leader who can take it as well as give it, who makes day-to-day decisions firmly with no fuss but also gets the really big judgments right, and who talks less like a politician and more like everyone else.

But Labour needs more. If we simply select a Leader of the Opposition, that's all they will ever be.

This is a test of the Labour Party as much as our would-be leaders.

So while all the pressure is on the candidates during this leadership election, there's also a big responsibility resting with our four million members.

The question is not just who can appeal to and lead those of us with a Labour affiliation; but who can appeal to and then lead the whole country? My answer is Ed Balls.