Ed Balls has been smashing up his home while rehearsing his ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ routines.
The former politician’s wife Yvette Cooper has revealed her spouse is so desperate to lift the famous glitterball trophy next month that he’s been practising his "wild" moves in the kitchen every day but his lack of co-ordination has meant he often unintentionally swings into the cooker.
Speaking on ‘Good Morning Britain’ on Friday (25.11.16), she said: "Early on he was doing a lot of practising in the kitchen. But the trouble is now that the dances have got wilder and wilder he just bumps into the kitchen cooker so it doesn’t work. It’s Tango this week. Who knows how that one is going to go."
Although he’s thrown himself into the competition head first, it was actually his wife who encouraged him to sign up to the ballroom and latin show because she thought it would help him shed his gut.
He said recently: "[Losing weight] is the main reason she thought I should do. She thinks there’s at least another stone-and-a-half to go. So far, it’s probably about a stone, which for six weeks isn’t bad. I’m also toning up and changing shape. You can just feel it. It’s like doing a marathon everyday."
And, although he’d ultimately like to win the show, Ed is hoping he can remain on the programme for a few more weeks as he’d like to lose a little more weight before he gives up dancing.
He explained: "I’m trimming down, I’ve got quite a long way to go but there’s definitely some progress, I need to be there for another month. I’m doing eight hours of training a day."
Ed has been partnered with professional dancer Katya Jones for this series and has admitted he feels "lucky" to have her as she’s been experimenting with different dance moves and characters.
He said: "We’ve been performing the characters and I’m just very lucky to have such a brilliant choreographer as well as a dancer. Katya can fit what I do with the dance into the music so well. We take every dance as it comes."