Richard Andrew Balfe studied at the London School of Economics. He started his political career in 1973, when he was elected in Dulwich during the Greater London Council election. Between 1979 and 2004 he was member of the European Parliament. During this period he was member of the Socialist Group, member of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, member of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Disarmament, Quaestor of the European Parliament and of the Parliament’s Bureau, member of the Committee on Budgets, member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation, member of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure, the Verification of Credentials and Immunities, member of the Delegation to the EEC-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, member of the Committee on Institutional Affairs, member of the Political Affairs Committee, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security, member of the Quaestors, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense Policy, member of the Subcommittee on Security and Disarmament, member of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and the Gulf States, member of the Delegation to the EU-Bulgaria Joint Parliamentary Committee, member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, member of the Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand, member of the Committee on Petitions. He was also elected among the Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU).
On 19 September 2013 he was created a life peer taking the title Baron Balfe.