A joke about Ed Balls losing his seat got a laugh at a Jeremy Corbyn rally

A joke from a senior Labour Party member about Ed Balls losing his seat in May drew a hearty laugh from attendees at a rally for Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott on Tuesday evening, according to reports.

In an article about the incident the Huffington Post's Ned Simons writes:

A joke by Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) member Christine Shawcroft at Ed Balls' failure to win his seat in May was greeted with laughter in the hall. "I don't know what he is doing these days," she said of the former shadow chancellor, having criticised his pre-election economic platform for being too pro-austerity.

Shawcroft was previously suspended from the Labour Party for supporting former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman after he was removed from his role. She was later reinstated as a Labour member.

The NEC is the governing committee of the Labour party and while Corbyn - who is standing to be Labour leader - was not at the rally when the joke was made, some have called for him and Abbott to condemn the comments.

Here's Karim Palant, Ed Balls's former head of policy:

Mark Ferguson, who works on strategy for Liz Kendall:

Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds:

And Labour Councillor Alice Smart:

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