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The UK should demand tougher controls on migration and the return of border controls within the EU, Ed Balls has said.

In an article for the Mirror, the former Shadow Chancellor says the deal secured by David Cameron must not be “the end of the story.”

Mr Balls says he is backing Remain but that does not mean he is voting for the status quo.

“Europe still doesn’t work well enough for Britain.

“There’s still too much waste and bureaucracy from Brussels, and - while a limit has been secured on the benefits paid to migrant workers - I don’t think that can be the end of the story.

“We need to press Europe to restore proper borders, and put new controls on economic migration,” he writes.

But Mr Balls argues these changes can only be achieved by Britain staying in the EU.

(Image: PA)

“If we leave the EU now, we can’t make those changes happen, and we’ll face the worst of all worlds: stay in the Single Market and be forced to accept free movement of people like Switzerland and Norway; or leave the Single Market and see jobs, investment and our public services hammered,” he writes.

Referring to his time as adviser to Gordon Brown in the Treasury, he says he was right to argue that Britain should not join the euro and he is not someone who “says Yes to Europe every time.”

“On the euro, even though many disagreed at the time, I saw that joining would cripple our economy, increase unemployment and damage our public services, and that’s why I fought to keep us out.

"This time, it’s the other way round. With half of UK trade tied up in Europe, leaving the EU would be even more devastating for our economy than joining the euro,” he writes.

Mr Balls’ comments could prove difficult for the Prime Minister who boasted he got the best possible deal from Brussels.

It comes after Gordon Brown denied ​“​underplaying​“​ the impact of immigration.

The former Prime Minister insisted he was listening to concerns among traditional Labour supporters as net migration runs at 333,000 a year.

The issue has dominated the run-in to June 23 and has triggered fears Labour’s heartland voters will back Brexit on polling day in a bid to slash mounting pressure on public services.

Speaking at De Montfort University in Leicester, the former Prime Minister told the Mirror: “We make sure that those services we are talking about that the pressure on them is removed.

“I believe – and Labour is suggesting this today – there should be a European solidarity fund for areas and communities which are hard hit by population rises.

“I am not underplaying the issues that people have raised with me on the doorstep.

“I don’t actually live in London, I live outside London and I hear what people say.

“They say that public services are under pressure and something has got to be done about it​.​

“They say that people who come to this country and are working hard in most cases, but where people are not working ​hard they have obviously got to have their benefits sanctioned.”