I’ve handed in my official nomination forms at Eastbourne Town Hall to be the Labour & Co-operative Candidate in the election on 4 July. I have been humbled by the kind words of encouragement and support I have had since being chosen to contest my home constituency. This is a change election, and it certainly feels like change is in the air.
But many people ask what does it meant to be a Labour & Co-operative Party candidate? I’ve been a member of the Co-operative Party for 30 years. The Co-op Party has its roots in the Co-op movement launched in Rochdale in the 1840s. The party was founded 1917 to secure representation for the Co-op movement in Parliament, local authorities, and anywhere else power is exercised. Since 1927, the Co-op Party and Labour Party have had a pact not to stand against other, and ever since candidates like me have stood ‘Labour & Co-op’. In the last Parliament, the Co-op Party was the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons.
I am proud to be Co-op-sponsored because it best accords to my values and approach to social change. I am a moderate socialist – what would be known as a social democrat in the rest of Europe. Within the British socialist tradition I stand with the decentralisers and devolutionists. My inspirations are Owen, Tawney, GDH Cole, Tony Crosland, and George Orwell. They shared, as I do, a distrust of monolithic state institutions, overarching bureaucracies, and the ‘man on Whitehall knows best’ approach to politics. Instead, we believe in local democracy, local ownership, active citizenship, and mutualism. I wrote a book about it, Labour’s Revival, published back in 2010. Human beings are naturally collaborative. We are shaped by our environments and circumstances, and that can drive people apart. There are those who want to divide us and promote hate. But co-operation is our natural instinct, and a politics of co-operation can tap into our kind, collaborative and mutual values. I’m standing on a Labour manifesto which is anchored in economic growth. The Co-op movement can be a driver of economic growth, locally and nationally. We need to double the size of the Co-op sector in the UK. We need more Co-op pubs, schools, homes, energy, shops, childcare, swimming pools, and football teams. If elected as MP for Eastbourne, I will convene an Eastbourne Co-op Convention to co-ordinate our local co-ops, and promote far more. If you’d like to know more about the Co-operative Party look us up, and please consider joining us.
