Conference – The Co-operative Movement is a proud member of this Labour family and, as an MP representing both, it is a great honour to bring you greetings  *from* your brothers and sisters in the Co-op Party.

Someone once described family get togethers to me as like a box of chocolates- mostly sweet with a few nutty moments and best enjoyed in moderation. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether our Conferences fit that description.

I have to tell you though being here I am feeling my age. Because the first time I came to Brighton was for conference nearly 20 years ago. 1997. The first one under a Labour administration in my lifetime.

Back then I lived in Essex where I thought the only other socialists were my mum and dad and Billy Bragg. At that rate I never thought we would win an election so I was on cloud nine.

Now just as 1997 seems so far away, so 2020 feels a stretch too. As we watch the Conservatives vandalise our country it feels wretched. We just want them out now. But in working towards a Labour government once again, let me pledge that the Co-operative Party will be with you all at every step.

We know happens to our communities, to our country, when progressives are on the backfoot and someone different is in office.

Take a look at Sunday night TV. This is England 90 is now on Channel 4. Its bringing back memories for us all of that decade. The music, the dodgy haircuts. The fax machine. And also of the destruction the Tory Government caused to the Britain in which I grew up.

In the last five years this Government has run up more public debt than all the previous Labour governments combined. And to what end? Homelessness: up. Foodbank use: up. Waiting lists: up. Class sizes: up. And the people of this country: let down.

The Conservatives have the gall to claim that they are the party of value for money, representing the best interests of working people. It’s like Sepp Blatter saying he’ll recommend you an accountant.

The co-operative pioneers knew what value for money meant- and how by working together we could all get a better deal. They wanted to sell honest food at honest prices, themselves. They knew that real change comes not from holding more meetings, but how we can all hold more power for ourselves.

That when it comes, for example, to beating Britain’s legal loan sharks, it was not just a law on the cost of credit that was needed but also credit unions. Giving those in debt a real alternative.

Now the world we face today is very different to the world the Rochdale pioneers faced. Or the Brighton of 1997.

Back then I heard our leader talk about bringing the information superhighway to schools. I had to wait at a payphone to ring home to tell my mum and dad about it. Today when our Leader speaks they will read about it on twitter or Facebook before I even get a chance to text.

But just as the pioneers didn’t wait for change so we can’t wait either. To show even if we are not back in office yet, the power in our ideas and in our people.

We have to do this not least because the people we represent need us to get stuck in. We cannot let this Government off the hook for five years.

Because brutal cuts are coming – for the poorest and the sickest and the youngest. People already struggling.

And if interest rates rise just a few percent, millions of families will have to find hundreds of pounds more each month just to keep a roof above their heads. Its not an accident. Personal debt is at an all time high under Osborne’s watch because he’s balancing his books out of your pockets.

We know patterns of work are becoming more flexible- but also more insecure. Within a few years there will be more self employed people than people working in the British public sector.

That is why we must oppose the Tory attacks on workers’ rights AND give more power to *everyone* to shape their own careers through freelancer cooperatives.

Its why we join with the Communication Workers Union to champion more employee ownership at the Royal Mail. Because the pioneers were both trade unionists and entrepreneurs.

And its why we must work now to protect our people from personal debt – because one in three of us last year faced a financial crisis.

So I want to pay tribute to our Coop Party Chair Gareth Thomas and our staff. Two years ago he stood on this stage and asked you to back the Coop campaign to introduce a credit union for our armed forces and their families. To give Britain’s service men and women the same protection their American counterparts have.

Well now because we fought for it, in a month’s time Britain’s armed forces credit union will open for business. I make that Team GB 1, the Legal Loan Sharks O.

And that’s why losing in May hurt. Because we know how much more difference to the lives of the British people we could have made if we had won.

Since 1927 we have stood together at elections – and in May we lost some of our brightest and best Coop Party MPs:- Ed Balls, Cathy Jamieson, Tom Greatrex, Iain Davidson, Gemma Doyle, Andy Sawford. Mark Lazarowicz.

And some very talented candidates didn’t make it through this time:-to name just a few,  Jamie McMahon, Louise Baldock, Melanie Ward,  Luke Pollard.

So its been a big year for us. We’re sad our amazing Coop Party General Secretary Karin Christiansen is leaving us for pastures new. Delighted Jeremy pledged to support Coop policies during the leadership contest. Grateful for your backing in winning the keep it Coop campaign.

So at such a stressful time we turned to our family for comfort- and the wise words of our trade union sisters and brothers who say don’t mourn, organise.

We want to work with you because we are always Labour, always family- and always true to bringing our distinctive coop principles to rebuilding Britain’s future.

Conference, let me be explicit. Only mutualism can truly protect public services against Tory Governments hell bent on selling off our family silver through privatisation.

Look at the fight we will face to save the BBC and Channel 4. Less the great British bake off and more the great British sell off. But a fruit cake idea and half baked at that.

But we don’t want a political elite to decide the fate our greatest assets. That is why in the months ahead we will campaign for the people who pay for public broadcasting – the Licence fee payers – to get a vote for who runs the BBC. And Channel 4 too.

And it is time we tackled legal loan sharking in the public sector, and took on the PFI companies crippling our hospitals.  We know a rip off when we see one – my own hospital trust, Barts in London, paid out £145m last year and another £127m this year in PFI debt repayment. That’s a sum equivalent to 6,000 nurses.

We fought for credit unions to tackle personal debt. Now we need a credit union movement serving our councils, health services and communities. And then they can borrow the money themselves to build the homes we so desperately need.

Mutualism is what makes Coop councils the real radical future of devolution. I’m proud to have been a coop councillor before I was a coop MP. Proud too that we’re in Labour and Cooperative Controlled Brighton under the leadership of Warren Morgan. Whether Plymouth, Edinburgh, Oldham or Milton Keynes, Cooperators are transforming their communities for the better.