Balls is criticised for his unfair comments on Shoesmith sacking

Despite the ruling last week that the decision to sack Shoesmith was lawful, summarising his findings, Mr Justice Foskett said that while the process was fair, Shoesmith had not been given an opp­ortunity to ref­ute certain claims made by Balls to the public.

He referred to Balls' statement in a press conference that Shoesmith was "not fit to hold office", and that she had insufficient oversight of her deputy - claims that did not appear in the Ofsted rep­ort on Haringey.

Judge Foskett also said Balls' assertion at a press conference following the 1 December 2008 sacking that Shoesmith should not rec­eive compensation, should have been avoided.
"His [Balls'] statutory role in relation to the claimant [Shoesmith] and her deputy ended when he made the dir­ections he did on 1 December," Foskett wrote.

"If newspapers or other commentators wished to suggest what the outcome should have been, they were entitled to do so. But the Secretary of State should not have been seen to support those views."

Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said he believed Balls made the right decision in sacking Shoesmith. But Gove renewed the Conservatives' call to publish serious case reviews, saying they would create a greater sense of openness, and des­cribed Balls as a "person of the old culture, politics and ways of doing things".