Ed Balls’s Oxford capers revealed

Like many in the Labour Party, Ed Balls (pictured) has made great play of the fact David Cameron and Boris Johnson were members of the notorious Bullingdon Club while at Oxford. However, it now transpires that the Cabinet minister was something of a wild man himself when he was at Keble College in the mid-1980s. As a member of The Steamers, an all-male drinking club - so called because they enjoyed 'steaming in' to chat up girls - he once donned a World War Two German officer’s uniform at a fancy dress party.

Photographic evidence of this 'hearty’ behaviour emerged in the Mail on Sunday. The 41-year-old Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families was seen in his Third Reich rig cavorting around a fellow student who was wearing plastic buttocks and breasts.

Recalling those heady times, a female contemporary of Balls said: "They [The Steamers] used to rate women on their physical appearance. It was immature nonsense, and some of the women in college found it ridiculous. I thought it was stupid rather than malicious. But it was sexist, and showed a lack of respect for equality and diversity."

However, others came to the minister's defence. Tom Linden, who was Balls's best man, said he was "made" to wear the German uniform, which was supplied for him by Keble's Junior Common Room committee. He said: "He was not too happy putting it on, but I guess he did not want to upset them." Only obeying orders, then.