My other half and I are lucky enough to live a couple of minutes walk from a decent sized Co-op store. It’s convenient, has some fairtrade, and we get a few vouchers through being members. The downside is that we seem to be supporting the Labour party when we have no wish to. The Co-op supports Labour candidates to the tune of £800,000 a year apparently. The Conservative MP Jesse Norman claimed that the Co-operative group has in the last ten years “given £6,187,788 to the Co-operative Party, and a further £355,857 to the Labour Party”.
It’s a bit of a shame because, like many Lib Dems, I quite like the idea of co-ops and mutuals. As is the case with unions, I wonder how many of the 7.2 million members really are supporters of the Labour party. In theory you could stand for election to one of the Co-op’s area committees, but, as pointed out elsewhere, changing the Co-op is likely to be a long uphill struggle and who has the time?
Well, there is an easier way. The Co-op is currently running a survey, which should only take twenty minutes. About half way in they ask some pertinent questions about the political/financial link between the Co-op and Labour. They first ask if people were aware of the link, and then ask whether they agree with statements about the relationship. Interestingly, it looks like the options are stacked slightly against the link (although you can strongly disagree with options of course), the strongest anti-option being ‘It is inappropriate for the Co-operative to give financial support to a political party’. The survey is open to members and non-members here.
* Tad Jones is a Liberal Democrat member in Nottingham and a member of ALDES. He writes in a personal capacity.
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18 Comments
Labour are in a coalition with the Coop Party, with the Coop not being atall distinct and separate as you might think. If you stand as a Coop candidate you have to commit to taking the Labour whip if elected.. so their support for the Coop Party is in reality support for a Labour-Coop Alliance Party… and as Tad Jones says, I wonder how many shoppers realise that there is any connection between the Coop and politics.
Though having said that, does anyone have any idea just how much money is being shovelled by all the supermarkets into one or other political party, and I don’t just mean sponsoring receptions at party conferences…??
Thanks for the article.
As the dust settled on my article on LDV calling for the end of the Co-operative’s Group links to Labour, it became clear that the change needed to come from within the Co-op itself. For this reason, filling in this quite long survey, with its small section on political funding for Labour (or the Co-operative Party) could encourage that change.
I suspect the proportion of Co-op customers who realise the Co-op is in some way linked to Labour is much higher than the proportion, say, of patients in C&C Alpha hospitals and care homes who realise that they are helping to support the Lib Dems :-
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rolls-royce-bribery-probe-millionaire-3143682
To be honest I’m genuinely puzzled by the way people who call themselves “democrats” should take it upon themselves to actively campaign to remove sources of funding from political opponents.
I assume you’d support public referendums on all donors to any party or politician on whether they’d be allowed to donate?
Just to prove this isn’t an organised attempt to manipulate a poll so as to defund your opponents, because that would be an astonishingly small minded thing to do.
@g
“Just to prove this isn’t an organised attempt to manipulate a poll so as to defund your opponents”
Yes, poor little Labour party being bullied by those nasty, big rich Lib Dems, eh?
G, I am a customer of the co-op, and I responded to the survey as such. (Actually I have been trying to close the bank account for a while, but I’m sure they’ll get round to that eventually.)
There is a question: are you a customer – and I’m sure they’ll take that into account appropriately.
The co-ops support is open and public. Other businesses are free to support political parties and do. You have a democratic right not to shop in the co-op. What’s the problem?
My problem is that I rather like the idea of co-ops, but the co-op party has become an ineffective pressure group within Labour that does nothing for co-operatives.
Even when the Prime Minister was a co-operative party member, they achieved little or nothing to promote co-operatives in general (as opposed to the co-operative group, which is a different thing altogether).
The Liberal Democrats should be the party of mutualism; the Labour Party isn’t & can’t be.
I’ve just filled in the survey. Clearly the Co Operative group has a huge reputation issue to address and this is part of it – kudos to them for doing this and for advertising it so widely. However what disappointed me about the form ( I am a member and pay reasonably close attention to things) is that there was no real opportunity to voice opinions about the operation of the group in my area. Where I live the group closed a food store in a deprived area and as far as I can see there was minimal or no consultation. When I contacted a member of the local committee I was told the decision hadn’t come near them (I believe him on that but it sort of begs the question of why have the local committees). Now we have an empty building and the only bits of news from the group about what will happen to the building are vague to the point of meaninglessness. Obviously this is a very local example but if an organisation wants to be seen as community minded and ethical it needs to do better than this. I tried to shoehorn these views into the question about what they could do to persuade more shoppers to shop with them (by not doing this was my answer!). It will be interesting to see what comes out of this consultation. I see some Labour members are already calling for to be closed now!
Alisdair, can you explain to me how being the party of mutuals would not be extremely left wing? Should all profit be shared between workers evenly? If not then it is not a true co-operative. The co-op is anything but a mutual nowadays.
As a former member of a Regional Board and an Area Committee, as well as being on the Main Board of Co-operatives UK,I never made any secret of the fact that I was a Lib Dem. Many of the members of the committees were and are Labour Party supporters and it will be an uphill struggle to change this. The decision to donate money to the Co-operative Party is usually made at the AGM which takes place in May in Manchester. Ordinary members are not allowed to attend this – only delegates from the elected committees. I argued for this to be changed but received little or no support. After all BT with more than a million shareholders, has the AGM open to all.
I would strongly urge all LibDems to take an active interest in their local Co-operatives, certainly fill in the survey and even stand for election.
I have always felt strongly that we need a healthy alternative to the four big chains who really only profit shareholders and do little for the local areas in which they trade. I would add that many suppliers as well need this alternative outlet otherwise they could easily be browbeaten by the likes of M&S (see recent stories)
@RC
“Yes, poor little Labour party being bullied by those nasty, big rich Lib Dems, eh?”
I think you need to take a look at some of the people who finance the Lib Dems before you try taking the moral high ground.
See link in my earlier post.
RC, on another thread you told me the lib dems should not give back money derived from crime and donated by criminals, yet here you are arguing that Labour should be deprived of a legitimate funding source given in the expectation that low paid workers will be supported.
The Co-op is to be commended for actually asking for our views, I’ve filled it in, said I don’t want the link with the labour party (or whatever that question meant), and why not.
We use our local co-op a lot, would be mad not to as we can walk there and have to go in the car to the others, and we are not going to boycott is because they fund the Labour party. Goodness knows what Tesco does with their profit (AND they aren’t stocking Fairtrade bananas).
I do find it frustrating, as Paula does, that you cannot communicate with them. For all they have elections we can vote in, you cannot contact those you elect, before or after the election. All I want is a community noticeboard in the store, but drawing a blank everywhere.
The consultation is at http://www.haveyoursay.coop/ and is very long.
It does not make clear the alignment between the “Coop” party and Labour
Good to see this post here, and the encouragement of people to fill in the survey with their views. I agree it actually appears “stacked slightly against the link”. I agree with Alisdair that “the co-op party has become an ineffective pressure group within Labour that does nothing for co-operatives”. My evidence is based on observation of those elected under that banner in my area and the North West in general. Only a few do anything. William also makes the point that the co-op movement has been promoted (not by all) in a partisan way. Michael’s point is a very strong one, and borne out by my reading of the group Annual Reports and Area Minutes for a couple of years. In companies (plcs) that make political donations the shareholders get to vote. Individuals probably cannot influence anything but they do get to vote. That doesn’t happen with the Co-operative. One of the mistakes the Government made (unwittingly or not) in its lobbying bill, while upsetting some voluntary sector activists, was not dealing with this party funding issue.
On Peter, and other’s points about companies. I don’t mind at all companies paying for receptions / sponsoring fringe meetings / and wouldn’t mind the Co-operative paying parties or charities or think tanks for political research IF it was done fairly in line with their ethical criteria.
Richard Harris
If the Co-op is the only store in town you do not have a choice unless you can travel to another town. I too like the idea of the Co-op but it seems to have been mismanaged for many years, falling from 50% of the retail trade in 1950 to about 5% now, whereas the John Lewis partnership is doing very well. The Co-op should be run by professional management and the activities of the elected board confined to an advisory role without any power to overrule the directors on business matters. If the ability of the Labour Party to run the country is judged on the success or otherwise of the Co-op or the many agencies run by Labour supporters they do not seem to have done very well.
At least their prices, compared with other supermarkets seem to have come down a bit recently, bu maybe the new boss was worried they would lose all their customers if they did not do something. He seems to have some idea what he is doing.
The results of the survey have been published.
http://www.haveyoursay.coop/