"The UWA vice chancellor found himself in an impossible position when the centre was used as a political football.
Offering Scotland more power over tax rates, spending and welfare, the proposals would be ready for implementation in the first Westminster parliamentary session after the 2015 general election, the chancellor added.
The chancellor reinforced this message with a call for Britain and Germany to remain "united and determined" in reforming the EU and promoting competitiveness.
In Britain, the new chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said on Monday that he would push through £6 billion ($8.65 billion) in spending cuts in an effort to convince skittish markets that the new government led by David Cameron was committed to fiscal restraint.
When Labour lost in 2010, Balls was originally overlooked by Miliband as shadow chancellor and only took on the role to which he was well suited after the departure of Alan Johnson.
Before the debate I believed that Darling should be chancellor, and that hasn't changed.
He also goes for the popular vote: he said that he would introduce a bank tax but then, when asked whether he would increase VAT or income tax, said: "No chancellor could rule that out".
The French president is also set to resume his cooling relationship with German chancellor Angela Merkel as the two plot to make the real decisions, in a private meeting today, about how to save the euro.
George Osborne, the chancellor and first minister, has ensured his northern powerhouse plan has a slot, but the number of cities apart from Greater Manchester that will want to be run by a directly elected mayor is currently small.
The German chancellor, who pleaded with Britain in a speech to a joint session of parliament on Thursday to remain a "strong voice" within the EU, declared in Downing Street that a deal was "doable" though she warned that the negotiations would not be a "piece of cake".
The chancellor needed to say that hell would freeze over before the rest of the UK would agree.
