The wife of Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls has asked the public not to take matters into their own hands after the hapless politician was found in a wheelie bin outside his own house. Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford has said she’s simply grateful to find him safe and well, and has urged people not to take the law into their own hands.

CCTV footage shows a female passer-by finding the former Education Secretary sitting on the wall, before bundling him into the large plastic bin. He was discovered unhurt some fourteen hours later by his wife, who heard him giving a random and incoherent yet passionate speech inside the dark plastic moulding, apparently believing he was being interviewed by Jeremy Vine.

Local police have confirmed that Kathryn Brightshore, Constituency Labour Party chairperson for Morley and Outwood has been questioned in connection with the offence and offered police protection. When questioned by a local radio station, she told of being overcome with an intense desire to ‘smash his fucking brains in’ and opted to put him into the bin in order to protect the Labour Party.

Ms Cooper has asked for people to co-operate with the police and IPSA on the matter, and not to vote for him for party leader.