Colin Talbot
Here’s a good Quiz Night question: which independent political Party has the fourth largest representation in the House of Commons?
The answer will surprise many people – even amongst those who consider themselves politically knowledgeable. It’s the Cooperative Party. About ten percent of Labours 400+ MPs are also representatives of the Co-op Party. The highest number of Co-op MPs ever. And Andy Burnham is the first PM to represent both Parties*.
The proportion of Co-operative Party representatives amongst Labour councillors is even higher. The Party claims 1,200 councillors out of Labour’s current 4,500 – a quarter
A small historical detour is necessary to explain this situation. The Cooperative Party emerged from the Cooperative movement in much the same way as the Labour Party emerged mainly from the trade unions. Co-operatives as we know them today date back to Rochdale Pioneers who founded the prototype of today’s modern retail cooperatives in 1844.
By the early 20th century cooperatives were well established and, like their trade union counterparts, seeking parliamentary representation. The Co-op Party was founded in 1917, about a decade after Labour, which by then already had a foothold in Parliament.
In 1927 after some limited electoral success the Co-op Party concluded a historic, if somewhat asymmetrical, electoral pact with Labour. Where there were both Labour and Cooperative Party local parties they could field joint Labour and Coop candidates. Labour could also field just Labour candidates but, and this is the asymmetrical bit, the Co-op Party couldn’t put up Co-op only candidates. Or even “Co-operative and Labour” ones. Labour always took precedence.
This agreement, coming up for its centenary in 2027, still stands. The Cooperative Party is still registered with the Electoral Commission as a separate Party. But as if to cement the relationship with Labour, the former General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, Joe Fortune, has just moved over to become the new General Secretary of the Labour Party.
INVISIBLE COOPERATIVES?
If you feel embarrassed that you didn’t know the answer to the opening question, don’t be. To be completely honest I’ve only become recently fully aware of the size and roles of both the Co-operative Party and the wider movement it grew out of. Over the past few years I’ve both become intrigued and engaged with both, and with their almost total invisibility in public affairs and, it has to be added, academia.
Some simple facts. The latest report from Cooperatives UK, the umbrella or “apex” body for the coop movement in Britain, claims that about 5% of UK workers are employed in what they call the democratic economy. They claim the total income of cooperatives and mutuals was £241 billion in the past year.
There are some problematic issues with these numbers however. The biggest is that NHS Foundation Trusts, because of their quasi-democratic and semi-autonomous nature, are included in the democratic economy. Which is debatable.
Interestingly co-ops and mutuals exist in almost every sector of the economy, including ones largely funded by the state like education, social care and health. They are now extending into areas like community ownership of facilities like pubs, sports clubs, village halls, and most recently local green power schemes.
One Labour manifesto commitment which has passed largely under the radar is their pledge to double the size of the cooperative and mutual sector. Which has sparked debate, mostly confined to within the cooperative movement, as to what that means. What is going to be doubled? Where will the growth take place? How will it be supported?
All of the above existing local cooperatives are potential areas for growth. And they are areas that already involve, or are planned to be engaged with, various forms of local governance under Labour’s local reorganisation plans.
COOPERATORS ACROSS PARTY LINES?
The existence of the Cooperative Party, and its alliance with the Labour Party, means that promoting or sustaining cooperatives at the local level can be seen as a partisan issue.
It clearly isn’t. There are supporters of cooperatives in most political parties to varying degrees. Certainly in the Liberal Democrat’s and Greens. Some Conservatives have been in favour of promoting cooperatives, sometimes admittedly as an alternative to public provision.
The much more pluralistic nature of political representation in local government raises questions about more cooperation across Party lines. Councils like Birmingham City, where no party came close to the 51 seats needed for a majority. Reform UK has 23 seats, the Greens 19, Labour 17, the Conservatives 16, the Liberal Democrats 12, and a group of 7 independents. Without political cooperation the Council would be paralysed.
One example of a cross-party cooperative initiative is the Cooperative Councils Innovation Network (CCIN). Which although it was originally set up by the Cooperative Party is now an explicitly non-partisan and has the support of other political parties in some Councils. I will say more about CCIN in a future article.
There has been very little attention paid to the role of the (currently) 1,200 Cooperative Party councillors. By the media or by academics. We know very little about whether they are cooperators in name only, or active promoters of cooperative principles and practice? Or how cooperators in other Parties, who certainly exist, put their values into practice?
*Gordon Brown MP is also a Cooperative Party member, but unlike Andy Burnham he was not a representative of the Party as an MP.
[This is the first in what I hope will be a series of articles about Councils and Cooperatives.]
Professor Talbot has extensive experience as both a practitioner and academic. He started work in 1969 and formally retired from the University of Manchester in 2017. He remains actively engaged with government, public service, and co-operative management issues. He is an Inlogov Associate at the University of Birmingham.
