A Labour Party spokesman today blamed the Shadow Cabinet announcement on a clerical error.
The leader's secretary was taking dictation from Mr Miliband when he allegedly shouted "Balls!" in exasperation at forgetting the name of the MP he had chosen to be Shadow Home Secretary.
This was transcribed as Ed Balls, whilst another throw-away comment "What does Alan Johnson know about being Chancellor?" allegedly lead to Alan Johnson being mistakenly named as Shadow Chancellor.
Speculation surrounding Ed Miliband's real intentions rattled around the blogosphere this afternoon with one prominent blogger alleging that Mr Miliband had spent 30 minutes on the phone to his brother David trying to understand why he couldn't name Gordon Brown to return as the Iron Shadow Chancellor.
"Look on the bright side," said another political commentator. "At least Peter Mandelson didn't make it onto the list."
