The Conservatives had targeted the Morley and Outwood seat that Labour's children's secretary Balls was contesting in an attempt to oust key ministers from Parliament.
Despite a close contest with Tory candidate Anthony Calvert and a 9.3 per cent swing from Labour to Conservative, Balls secured the seat by 1,101 votes.
Labour ministers in the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Vernon Coaker, Dawn Primarolo, Iain Wright and Kevin Brennan, all retained their seats, despite the Tories clawing back a share of the votes in each of their constituencies.
But Labour's Dawn Butler, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Youth Affairs, lost her seat in Brent Central to Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Teather.
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