Seconds out as Merrick goes head-to-head with Balls for Round Two

So Ed, what do you remember of the incident on Sunday?

Not much, really. There was a clash – I didn’t know it was you – and, when the ref stopped the game, I remember thinking my arm hurt. Then, there you were on the ground and we all ran over.

I like to say I was about to score a fabulous goal in the right-hand corner and you knocked me off balance and - when I was 20 years younger - I would have zipped off at pace, but, as you get older, you have to hold your ground.

To watch video footage of the match, and the moment Ed Balls clashed with Rob Merrick, click here.

I had the ball as you came in, I thought, quite hard from behind. I was definitely trying to steady myself and hold you off, but clearly my arm caught you - and I’m really sorry about that.

First of all, I saw you’d gone down, then they said you had to go off, then I found at half-time that there’d been blood – and then we found out there had been stitches. At every stage, it got worse!

Were you surprised by just how much fuss there has been about it?

A little bit, but it’s not the first time in my business. Three years ago, I was all over the papers because my shorts were too tight and my stomach splurged out and, two years ago, I supposedly did a dive – although it wasn’t.

I’m thinking I should get a T-shirt like Mario Balotelli, which I can rip open during the Labour party conference and which reads ‘Why always me?’!

On a day when I about to do tough stuff about balancing the books on the economy, a picture like that will always be quite prominent

All conference, people have come up to me and said ‘What did you do?’ Or they’ve said ‘Good on you Ed!’, while wiggling their elbows.

I was pretty sure the TV cameras would show it wasn’t that bad, but I’ve now heard that maybe that’s not the case?

What did you wife Yvette (Cooper – Shadow Home Secretary) say about it?

Well, Yvette went around all the fringe meetings saying ‘I can’t believe this has happened – when I’m supposed to be in charge of anti-social behaviour!’

We had an auction to play a five-a-side match against myself, Andy Burnham, Jim Murphy, Sadiq Khan and one other and it’s organised for next Monday night, at Milton Keynes.

It was bought by group of quite leery guys, who bid quite a lot of money. I’ve been going around joking that, after they saw the photos, they rang up and said ‘Can we just make a donation and not play the football match?’

Do you think they should take out insurance?

These things happen in football, don’t they? The important thing is that it’s always a tough game, but it’s always a friendly game. I’m sure there was no malice in your tackle – and there was no malice in my flailing arm.

The other problem is that the referee has been going around telling everybody that it wasn’t a foul – but, unfortunately, he’s a Labour councillor from Oxford and he’s married to a Labour MEP! So he may be a bit partial!

Does Ed Miliband ever say anything about your picture appearing in these sorts of circumstances? Does he ever suggest you shouldn’t play?

Hey, the Labour leader’s also had the odd photo that’s been difficult for him – so we both understand these things.

Actually, he thought it was hilarious. I realised I had to say something about the photos in my speech, so I this line about Boris Johnson challenging David Cameron and I said he was trying to elbow him out of the way. Then I said maybe it’s not the day for me to talk about elbowing.

When I came off at the end of my speech, Ed came over and said ‘I love the line about elbowing. I need a joke for my speech. Can you think of another one?’ – so Ed was trying to think of a way he could turn it into a joke for him.

You’re even older than me, Ed [he’s 47]. Why do you still play football?

I really enjoy it. Also, I don’t know how I’d explain why I’d stopped – and, in part of me, there’s still a sense that I’m a pacy 25-year-old. I still think maybe one day the call will come. I joke that, when I go and see Norwich I take my boots just in case.

Of course, reality tells a different story, but you’ve got to try to be youthful and enjoy life – and trying to play football like we did 20 years ago is part of not getting too old, too quickly.

You came to the conference determined to show you were ready and willing to make cuts. Was my injury useful to you this week?

People said ‘Is he serious?’ And they concluded ‘bloody serious!’ after seeing your cut!

It was a tough day for me on Monday, because I’ve got to say things to the Labour party and country that are hard. The deficit is going to be big, we are going to have to balance the books and I announced some tough things – including that one per cent on child benefit.

I think people think Labour and a Labour Chancellor have got to be tough – so those images might, at the margin, help a little bit.

Do people look at those pictures and see a tough Chancellor? Or do they see a middle-aged man who should give up football? I think it might be the latter.

One Labour MP told me the child benefit cap was the wrong thing to promise and that it would be harder to convince people that Labour was offering something worth voting for, harder to inspire people to vote Labour?

I understand that argument, but I don’t think it’s right - it misunderstands the nature of our challenge.

People are sick of the Conservatives, they don’t think they’re changing the economy for the better. They want a better alternative and lots of people want that alternative to come from Labour, but they say to us ‘Can we be sure that you’ll make the sums add up, that it won’t go wrong and that you won’t spend money you haven’t got?’

They are not different groups of people saying that. It’s not the case that you have traditional Labour voters who only want us to make a difference and don’t care about us balancing the books and that there’s Middle England swing voters, who don’t care about minimum wage but they care about the deficit – it’s just not true.

Working people have had to tighten their belts and they want the Government to balance its books too. And they’re the same people who want to know that the NHS will get the funds it needs and that the minimum wage will go up.

When I say we’ll raise the top rate of tax for the richest and have a mansion tax, but I’ll have to do things like that the rise in child benefit will be only one per cent, I think people will look at that and say ‘These guys are serious, they’re not ducking the big decisions, they’re being straight It’s tough, but they can do this in the right way’.

Labour are still a long way behind the Conservatives when it comes to who is more trusted to run the economy. Can you make up the ground?

The only poll that matters is the general election poll, where Labour is consistently ahead. We’re not complacent, but we’re winning the argument - on living standards, on the NHS, on jobs, we’re ahead

We were only in Government four years ago, we’re not going to go into the election and people will say ‘Just forget the past’. That’s going to be a factor in people’s minds, but I think we can say to people that we’ve learned lessons on immigration, on the benefits bill on bank regulation – and that we’re being very disciplined in not spending money we haven’t got.

Are there other unpopular decisions coming? Should people prepare for more bad news, perhaps public sector workers? Or local councils? Will they have to make more cuts?

In local government, in policing, there’s already been a lot of cuts, a lot of pressure. I want to make sure we can keep those vital services - I’m not a Tory ideologue who wants to cut the size of the state.

In some areas, there will have to be some more cuts – in policing there are still going to be cuts from Labour in 2015. But we can make different choices. We’re not going to carry on with police and crime commissioner elections – they are going to be scrapped and Theresa May [the Home Secretary] spent £70m on that.

We will make forces join together on procurement and join services. We think that’s enough to avoid getting rid of the 1,000 police officers that Theresa May’s going to get rid of next year. In housing, I think we can prioritise housing more within the overall capital budget

There are different choices, but there’s not a big pot of money ready for the next Labour chancellor.

Finally, on Sunday, the journalists will be playing the Conservatives – two of your least popular groups, I imagine. If you were there, who would you be supporting?

Oh, definitely the journalists. Let’s be honest, the Tory party has never really been at the same competitive level as Labour at football. I’m supporting the media!