Grammatical query

Guido  has an interesting quote of the day:

 'George Osborne welcoming of Balls to his new job: “Now he knows too what it feels like to be the peoples’ second choice”.'

Is George Osborne correct? Well obviously he's correct in that Ed Balls was Ed Miliband's second choice as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer - incidentally has anyone asked Ed Miliband why Ed Balls was his second choice, what qualities he lacked that Alan Johnson had? - but is that correct English or should it have read: 

“Now he too knows what it feels like to be the peoples’ second choice”

Just wondering; maybe  Simon Heffer or Lynne Truss will let me know...