He wants to become Chancellor of the Exchequer . But this morning Ed Balls admitted that he relies on his mother-in-law June for help with maths . At the end of an interview on Good Morning Britain , Labour ’ s shadow chancellor said he was relieved he had not been asked to answer any maths questions live on TV . Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls told Good Morning Britain his mother was the family 's maths brain . Last month during an interview on the ITV breakfast show , Education Secretary Nicky Morgan was left embarrassed when she refused to answer what 7x8 is . After appearing on the programme this morning to discuss George Osborne ’ s Budget , Mr Balls told host Susanna Reid : ‘ I was pleased you didn ’ t ask me any maths questions this morning , that was my… ’ Asked how he was with fractions , Mr Balls replied : ‘ Luckily my mother-in-law is a maths teacher so she is the expert when it comes to maths. ’ A shocked Miss Reid interrupted : ‘ You can not tell me that the shadow chancellor relies on this mother in law to do his maths. ’ He added : ‘ The kids think the mother-in-law is very good at maths teaching . You always rely on your mother in law. ’ Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid asked Mr Balls if he really left all the maths questions to his mother in law . He replied : 'You always rely on your mother-in-law ' The morning after the Budget , Mr Balls warned that Mr Osborne 's plan for cuts was ‘ a pretty scary prospect ’ for voters . Mr Balls has three children with his wife , Labour ’ s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper . Her mother June , is a maths teacher and her father , Tony , a trade unionist . After working as an adviser to Gordon Brown at the Treasury , Mr Balls was elected as an MP in 2005 and became shadow chancellor in 2011 . He previously worked at the Financial Times and taught economics at Harvard University . Last month Mrs Morgan refused to do mental arithmetic during an appearance on Good Morning Britain to discuss plans to improve the performance of schools in England . When asked what the answer to 7x8 is , she said : ‘ I 'm not going to be answering any maths questions. ’ Mr Balls has three children with his wife , Labour ’ s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper . Mr Balls warned that Mr Osborne 's plan for cuts was ‘ a pretty scary prospect ’ for voters . ‘ For all his boasts , people are worse-off than they were and the squeeze on living standards has been very severe , ’ Mr Balls later told BBC Radio 4 's Today programme . ‘ If you look at his plans for the next parliament , as the independent OBR say , the cuts in public spending under the Osborne plan are more severe in the next three years than in the last five . ‘ His desire to get to an overall surplus by 2019/20 means even bigger cuts in the next three years to our police , our defence forces than we 've seen in the last few years . ‘ I do n't think those cuts are going to be possible for George Osborne . He 's going to end up either cutting our National Health Service or raising VAT . ‘ The truth at the election will be , do you want Labour 's more balanced , fairer approach to deficit reduction , which focuses on raising wages and being fair , or do you want to go for even deeper spending cuts over the next three years ? ’
Shadow chancellor reveals his mother in law is the family maths expert . Ed Balls made the embarrassing admission on Good Morning Britain . Told host Susanna Reid he was glad she did not ask him a maths question .