Former politician Ed Balls has admitted he has received a range of “weird” offers since appearing in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
He won legions of fans on the BBC One show, flying through the competition until its last stages despite struggling to master some of the technical skills.
The former shadow chancellor said he now planned to move on to some new television projects since recently retiring from politics.
He told the Press Association: “I have been offered lots of weird things through the medium of dance.
“I’m sure I’ll be moving on to some new things soon but I’m not ready to say quite what yet.
“I’ll be doing a few TV things in the next few weeks, including Have I Got News For You before the election.”
His comments came as he attended the TV Bafta Awards at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, arm in arm with his Strictly dance partner Katya Jones after the pair’s famous Gangnam Style performance earned them a nomination for television’s must-see moments of the year.
Describing the event as a “bit of a whirl” while the world of politics focuses on the upcoming General Election, he continued: “Two years ago in the last election I was a candidate and now I am at the Baftas while my former colleagues are out campaigning and trying to win votes.
“It’s really important to have people who put themselves forward in politics to get elected because our democracy needs it.
“But it’s also (important) people are entertained and have fun to hold our nation together, and tonight’s a celebration of that.”
A @bbcstrictly reunion at tonight's #BAFTAs pic.twitter.com/RUSAM2h6Jg
— Ed Balls (@edballs) May 14, 2017
Commenting on his hopes for the country’s future, he said looking at the results of America’s election last year proved things do not always turn out as expected.He joked: “It was one thing for me, a former politician, to become for a short period of time a TV star, it was quite another thing for the American people to elect a reality TV star as president of the US.“That was an even bigger surprise, I thought I was beyond being surprised and I still didn’t think that would happen, so that was quite something.”Asked specifically about his thoughts on the big UK vote in June, the former Labour MP said simply: “The polls sometimes get it wrong by a small margin.”
