LABOUR shadow chancellor Ed Balls tied his colours to the EU’s wobbling mast yesterday, branding those arguing for a British exit “Luddites.”

In a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce conference the frontbencher faced down Tory-led attacks branding the party “anti-business.”

He declared his support for Britain’s unprecedented corporation tax cuts on bigger firms.

Yet Labour’s top priority would be to freeze business rates for 1.5 million smaller outfits if it wins in May, he said.

But his speech was dominated by a swingeing attack on those urging a referendum on exiting the European Union.

“Walking out of the EU is the biggest risk to our economy in the next decade,” he suggested.

The “Luddite view of those who think Britain can just cut ourselves adrift from the EU and the global economy and go it alone” must be rejected, declared Mr Balls.

But pro-trade-union opponents of EU membership accused him of painting a deliberately misleading picture of the economic consequences of a break with the bloc.

No2EU convener Brian Denny said: “Balls can’t simply attack the eurozone, which is clearly coming apart at its neoliberal seams, and then claim that any ‘Brexit’ from the EU would be a disaster.

“His wrong-headed use of the term Luddite is about as useful as his claims that everyone will lose their job outside the EU, which is already a world economic black spot,” he said.

Balls’s other brainwaves:

• Fast-track plans for airport expansion in south-east England

• An independent national infrastructure commission to speed up big decisions

• A British investment bank to give small and medium businesses better access to loans

• More free childcare to help working parents

• Status of apprenticeships and vocational learning put on a par with academic qualifications

• A review by LoveFilm founder Simon Franks into how the government can help entrepreneurs with ‘early-stage high-growth’ businesses