Many of you will have local elections in your area in May 2018.  See here for the latest guidance on selecting, electing and supporting Labour and Co-operative councillors, including what you need to do to apply for a certificate for your local Co-operative Party candidates.

Labour Party selections are taking place in many areas ready for the next General Election, whenever that may be.

If any of you members are considering standing as a candidate and applying to the Co-operative Party, they should contact Joe Fortune for guidance.

Joe Fortune

General Secretary

If your local party wishes to make an official nomination i.e to select a candidate from the Parliamentary panel who, if selected by the CLP would become an official Labour and Co-operative candidate, contact Joe Fortune to discuss seeking the agreement of the NEC.

If you wish to make an unofficial nomination, you can find the process for this in the Rule Book.  Branches must seek the permission of the Party Council before making a nomination.

Every quarter, you must  let us have details of any donations (including the grant from your local Society) and any benefits in kind (such as free or cheap meeting rooms).

Please send Karen Wilkie details for the period 1 October – 31 December 2017 by Friday 12 January.  We need to know the donor, amount and date accepted for any sum over £500.

We don’t frequently have large donations to the Party but they are very welcome.

If your local Party or Branch receives a donation of £500 or over, please contact Karen Wilkie straight away as there are checks that we need to do swiftly  to comply with legislation before we can accept.

Thank you for everything you did to make our Centenary year so amazing. Events took place right across the UK and our members worked incredibly hard to make them a success.

If you haven’t done so already, please send your reports and photos to John Boyle so that we can collate a lasting record.

We have had a great year for new members and are just a handful short of 11,000 – our highest membership in recent times.  If you know anyone who hasn’t quite got around to joining, sign them up before new year!

Centenary souvenirs, along with plenty of other great gifts are still available in our online shop.

Co-operative Party Tea Towel

This tea towel commemorates the founding of the Co-operative Party in 1917, featuring artwork from an early Party leaflet and updated to include the seven co-operative principles that you unite co-operatives all around the world.

'Co-operation is a theory of society and, therefore, a legitimate basis for a political party. If there is still any doubt as to the need for political action, this Conference will settle that doubt. We have things to safeguard, things to stand for, things to achieve.' - T W Allen, Chairman of the Co-operative National Emergency Conference, October 1917

 

Please let us know of your events so that we can include them on the website.  If you know the dates of your Regional Labour Conference and it isn’t list below, please get in touch so that we can plan ahead.

South West Weekend School – 13/14 January 2018

Members from other regions are very welcome at this popular annual event, hosted by the South West Peninsula Party in Brunel Manor, Torquay.

South West Conference

Saturday, 13 January 2018 | Torquay

Event details Map iCal

Regional Labour Party Conferences

• West Midlands – 3 March 2018 – Birmingham
• Yorkshire & Humber – 10 March 2018 – Saltaire
• South East – 3/4 November 2018 – Southhampton

Scottish Labour Conference – 9-11 March 2018 – Dundee

Welsh Labour Conference – 20-22 April 2018 – Llandudno