Labour’s group of 27 Co-operative MPs are to step up efforts to develop a distinctive voice in parliament, working as a bloc this week to move amendments and start debates on issues from savings to the crown estate.
Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas, the party’s chair, said the MPs wanted to “help the centre-left regain its confidence and the political initiative after Brexit”.
More than 20 MPs sit in the Commons on a joint Labour and Co-operative ticket from across the political spectrum in the party, including the shadow international development secretary, Kate Osamor, shadow City minister Jonathan Reynolds and backbenchers Stella Creasy and John Woodcock.
MPs in the Co-operative party said privately they felt there was “plenty of political space” to act on their own initiative, with the party machine still recovering from the turmoil over the summer.
However, the party’s MPs have repeatedly stressed that they do not wish to break away from Labour, a suggestion that was mooted in reports during the party’s leadership crisis over the summer.
On Monday night, Thomas and his Co-operative colleagues will move an amendment to the savings bill to allow credit unions to offer the government’s new Help to Save initiative, a payroll deduction scheme intended to encourage savers.
The MP said it would be the first of a number of new, distinctive initiatives by Co-operative MPs. “Co-op MPs have always sought to champion the co-operative movement in parliament alongside the wider Labour party but this is the first time tonight, in recent years, that we have initiated a vote to try and make government legislation more co-operative friendly,” he told the Guardian.
“As our centenary approaches next year, we intend to outline a series of new, distinctive ideas which we hope policymakers across the UK will be interested in and want to take up.”
Two more initiatives from Co-operative MPs will take place this week alone, including a 10-minute rule bill on Tuesday arguing the Royal Bank of Scotland should be mutualised and its ownership transferred to its customers and employees, and a proposal to turn the crown estate into a sovereign wealth fund.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and the party’s frontbench are backing the savings amendment, but are only imposing a one-line whip – which means MPs are not compelled to attend.
Labour and Co-operative MP Stephen Doughty said it was common for the group to support each other’s initiatives, but said the party’s MPs wanted to distinguish themselves and the party more clearly.
“I’m proud that Co-op MPs have a record of working together to secure changes to our financial system, our economy and other organisations to promote a co-operative and mutual solution,” he said.
“We call it ‘making the co-op difference’ and from everything from community energy to credit unions, co-op solutions are making a difference up and down the country.”
Thomas told the party’s conference in September that the Co-operative party needed a “more distinctive” voice, particularly on the economy and on Brexit. “We are very clear we want to stay in the [European] single market,” he told the conference.
“We see it as an exercise in international cooperation. And we are pretty pro-business as a party. It is co-op businesses that set us up and which continue to affiliate to us, and it is one of the things that marks us out.”
