Responding to today’s results, Karin Christiansen, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party said:

“The Co-operative Party has been the political voice of the co-operative movement for 98 years and we look forward to continuing our successful relationship with the Co-operative Group in light of today’s clear and decisive result.

“Co-operative Group members voted to support this partnership, which has done so much to advance the co-operative cause and to extend and widen people’s ownership, decision-making and a share in the profits of businesses serving their communities.

” The Co-operative Party looks forward to working with the Co-operative Group’s board and new national members’ council to plan our future work together.”

For further comment

Claire McCarthy 0770212357

Notes for editors

Motion 9, submitted by the Group Board, which was about donations not subscriptions and was both confusingly worded and contradictory, had unsurprisingly confusing results. 9a – on whether the society should make any donations to political parties received only 37% of votes in support; whereas 9b – on whether to only make donations to the Co-op Party received 48%; and 9c – which asked whether to make donations to a range of political parties received just 24%.

Considering the poor phrasing of Motion 9 and the failure of the Co-op Group to send even basic information to voters about the Co-op Party, this is a massively positive result. If this had been an informed and engaged process it is very likely that this support for involvement in politics and the Co-operative Party would have been even higher.