Ed Balls turned down plans for him to be shot out of a canon on Strictly Come Dancing.
Producers were reportedly desperate to get him to do the stunt on the BBC ballroom dance contest but he wasn’t so keen.
The politician is said to have a behind-the-scenes showdown as he was begged to reproduce scene which was first taken part in by Russell Grant in the 2011 series.
He told the Daily Star Sunday: “I said to the BBC a few weeks ago, ‘I refuse to be fired out of a cannon.’
“When I did the Great Balls of Fire thing at Blackpool last week I said to them, ‘Why am I coming down from the ceiling on a piano?’
“And they said, ‘Well, it’s not a cannon is it’”
Ed entertained viewers with his Blackpool performance last week during which he could be seen playing the piano which was on fire.
He avoided landing in the dance-off which saw athlete Greg Rutherford lose out to Claudia Fragapane.
Ed has been favourite to get the boot from the competition for a number of weeks now but he is enjoying his time on the show.
He said: “It was a surprise to me to get through the first week. My waltz was not very good at the beginning. But I have been truing to work hard every week.
“We have done Laurel and Hardy, we have done The Mask, I have saved a princess from a dragon and I have done Gingham Style, which was wonderful.”