The NEC of the Co-operative Party is elected every three years, with the current members serving from June 2017-20. The NEC is also the Board of the Society, Co-operative Party Ltd. It normally meets quarterly, with the June meeting being the AGM.

This year’s AGM took place in Luton on 10 June. The NEC welcomed Jim McMahon MP, recently elected as Chair of the Co-operative Parliamentary Group to his first meeting and recorded thanks to outgoing Chair Gavin Shuker MP.

Gareth Thomas MP (London Region) was re-elected Chair of the NEC and Chris Herries (Eastern Region) as Vice Chair. The NEC also elected a number of Sub Committees to support its work, including Audit, Policy, Staffing & Remuneration, Disputes and Rules.

Cheryl Barrott (Yorkshire & Humber) and Andrew Pakes (South East) were elected to represent the Party on Labour’s National Policy Forum.

The NEC discussed a motion on anti-Semitism submitted by the Co-operative Parliamentary Group.

The NEC shared the grave concern expressed by members of the Group about the utterly unacceptable nature of the abuse and harassment that Jewish MPs including members of the Co-operative Parliamentary Group have suffered. They were united in their condemnation of this form of behaviour and asked the Chair to write to those MPs to formally express their solidarity.

As requested in the motion, the NEC considered the proposals made by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council to the Labour Party for strengthening procedures for dealing with cases of alleged anti-Semitism. The aim of this discussion was to see how the measures could be taken forward by the Co-operative Party to deal with any such cases that arise within our membership.

The NEC agreed the following actions:

• Notwithstanding that the Co-operative Party has no backlog of outstanding cases, to approve a rule change that will speed up the disciplinary process to ensure swift, fair and consistent management of all disciplinary cases.
• To issue guidance to Party Officers that in the organisation of meetings and events speaker invitations are carefully considered to ensure that they do not provide a platform for individuals or organisations that are known to hold anti-Semitic views.
• To write to the Co-operative Party’s political representatives to ask them to consider very carefully before sharing platforms with individuals or organisations that may hold views that by association could bring the Party into disrepute; and not to share platforms with individuals or organisations that are known to hold anti-Semitic views.
• To use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism and the examples that go alongside it to inform decision making about disciplinary cases or in other circumstances in which the Party is called upon to determine whether actions amount, in the Party’s view, to anti-Semitism.
• To circulate the full IHRA definition to Party Officers with the goal of widening understanding of what constitutes anti-Semitism.

Following the meeting, the Party Chair Gareth Thomas MP wrote to the members of the Co-operative Party Group to inform them of these actions, and to the members affected to express the NEC’s solidarity.

A separate briefing will follow to Party Officers that will include the IHRA definition and the guidance on meetings.  This will also be in the Officers’ Hub on the website.

The draft changes to the Party’s rule on conduct and to the Disciplinary Procedures, which were approved by the NEC in the same meeting will be circulated to Party Officers, together with other rule changes to be discussed at the Annual Conference in October.

The NEC agreed several draft rule changes to make the rules clearer. These include:

• Simplifying the members’ declaration
• Clarifying the rules applying to elected members
• Extending the rule on standing for election against an official Labour candidate to apply to prospective members
• Clarifying the rule on not promoting rival candidates to include social media
• Amending the rule on conduct to include harassment and abuse alongside harassment and adding age.

The NEC will also propose changes to some of the procedural rules. These will simplify the –

• process for submitting emergency motions to Annual Conference
• membership procedure so that local Parties retain the right to object to new members (subject to the rules) but are no longer required to approve
• disciplinary process to make it fair and consistent, but swifter.

These will now be circulated to local parties and subscribing societies and affiliates for comment.

You can find the current rules here.

The NEC reviewed the progress of the 2018 Policy Consultation process on ‘Britain leaving the European Union’ and ‘An economy where wealth and power are shared’.  The closing date for submissions is 30 June.

It was noted that several the submissions so far on Britain leaving the EU indicate that parties would welcome the debate in Annual Conference being widened to include the terms and process for withdrawal as well as the opportunities and threats for the co-operative movement post-Brexit.  It was agreed that this would be factored in to the draft policy paper and to the Conference debate. It was also agreed that the Annual Conference debate should include votes on the Co-operative Party’s policy position.

The NEC discussed a detailed presentation by Chris Bain (West Midlands) on the co-operative approach to Health and Social Care. It was agreed that this should be included for a fringe meeting at Annual Conference and considered as a topic for the Party’s policy process in 2019.  It will also be raised in discussions with subscribing societies including, if feasible, at the Co-operative Retail Conference in the Spring.

As agreed by earlier Conference resolutions, the NEC will propose an inflation increase to the minimum individual members’ subscriptions from January 2019. The 14-19 rate has been increased to £3 but remains in line with the lowest of all Political Parties. The NEC also agreed that the discount for members paying annually will be phased out over the next three years to bring them back into line with monthly payers.  This was originally designed as an incentive to pay annually when we predicted that the bank charges to collect monthly payments would be much higher.  This is no longer necessary and appears unfair to monthly payers, many of whom have lower incomes.

The 20-22 rate (£10) will be phased out for new members from 2019.  Members already on that rate can continue it until their 23rd birthday.

These are minimum rates.  Members are encouraged to pay more if they can and many members now pay a higher rate or have joined one of the fundraising clubs –

• Higher: £5 per month or £60 per year
• 100 Club: £8.33 per month or £100 per year
• 1917 Club: £19.17 per month or £230 per year

The NEC welcomed the Party’s success in the recent local government and elected mayor elections in England, which saw

• 533 Labour & Co-operative Candidates on 3 May
• 393 Labour & Co-operative Councillors elected (up from 123)
• Net Gain of 270 Councillors, and on 26 additional Councils
• 268 elected in London (up from 34) and represented on 23 Councils (up from 8)
• All English regions saw growth or no change in total Councillors
• We continue to increase the number of Labour and Co-operative Elected Mayors and Leaders

All newly elected councillor have access to the Councillors’ Hub and have been sent guidance on how to ensure that their local authority lists properly them as Labour and Co-operative.

The Party’s Strategic Plan, which was agreed in consultation with local parties, subscribing Societies and affiliates, runs from 2016 to 2018.  The NEC is now reviewing this to consider whether our current Strategic Objectives should be revised and what our priorities and plan for the next three years should be.

The NEC received reports on the Party’s income and expenditure for the period to 30 April 2018.

Jim McMahon MP gave his first report as Chair of the Co-operative Parliamentary Group.  Some of this work is reported in the General Secretary’s Report.

The NEC also sent congratulations to Labour & Co-operative MP Louise Ellman, who was made a Dame in the Queens’ Birthday Honours.

As part of the Centenary plans in 2017, the NEC agreed to refresh the Party’s brand for our 2nd Century.  This was deferred to commence in 2018.  The General Secretary presented the first set of ideas from the company commissioned to assist this work, drafted following consultation with staff and the NEC.

Annual Conference 2018 will take place on Friday 12 – Sunday 14 October in the Bristol Grand Hotel.  Registration is now open for parties and societies to book delegates, including the opportunity to reserve accommodation in the conference hotel. The NEC agreed that Annual Conference 2019 (11-13 October) should be in Glasgow, subject to a suitable venue being available.

The NEC received an update on the Party’s work in preparation for the commencement of the General Data Protection Regulation in May.  A detailed briefing has been sent to all Party Officers.

Membership has continued to grow strongly, with a 7.7% increase on this time last year.  694 new members joined the Party between January and the end of May.

The General Secretary gave a full report to the NEC on recent work towards the Party’s strategic objectives.