Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One at 6.50pm on Saturday September 3.
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“I stay at home a lot, sitting around in my trousers eating cakes, because I don’t really get to do that the rest of the year and this is going to be one of the first years in a long time that I’m training through”.
They joined presenter Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman for a red carpet event at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire where the series is filmed.
The popular BBC One show returns to TV screens this weekend, but the pairings of dancers and celebrities have not yet been officially announced.
He said: “Yvette is hugely envious – she’s always wanted to be on Strictly”. But I’ve got a great professional partner and I’ve got three weeks to train.
The former shadow chancellor said the critic he is most hoping to impress is head judge Len Goodman.
“It’s a chance to say that politics is about human beings and that those of us who come out of politics – in my sort of retirement phase – can do new things. Whoever is going to come in is going to just be a new judge, I don’t think they’ll be a new Len”.
She said she watched fellow Team GB member Louis Smith when he won the 2012 series of Strictly.
This year’s contestants comprise of Greg Rutherford, Daisy Lowe, Judge Rinder, Laura Whitmore, Ore Oduba, Louise Redknapp, Will Young, Naga Munchetty, Tameka Empson, Danny Mac, Anastacia, Ed Balls, Claudia Fragapane, Melvin Odoom and Leslie Joseph.
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Strictly Come Dancing contestant and ex-cabinet minister Ed Balls fears his hips may not be up to jiving as he admitted his appearance on the show is part of a mid-life crisis.
