In 2021 we started a review of the membership of the NEC ahead of the next elections in 2023, and initial views were sought from members in an online consultation over the summer.

Following that first consultation, subscribing societies, local parties, branches, networks and individual members were invited to comment on a series of options for changes to the membership of the NEC. At its meeting in March the NEC discussed the options for changes to the NEC and the consultation responses, and agreed the following changes. These will come into effect at the next election in Spring 2023, if agreed at the at the AGM in June and approved by the Financial Conduct Authority:

Individual members

Currently, the NEC has one member elected by and from members in Scotland and Northern Ireland, one from Wales, nine from England and one by and from Youth members (12 in total).

This will be amended to one member elected by and from members in Scotland, one from Wales, one from Northern Ireland, eight from England and one from each of the BAME, (dis)Ability, LGBTQ+ and Youth Networks (15 in total). The NEC members for each network will be elected by one member one vote, by and from all eligible members of that network. The NEC members for England will be elected from four regions, two members (gender balanced) per region. The electoral regions, along with the other detailed procedures for the next election, will be agreed by the NEC and published before the end of this year.

Elected representatives

In addition to the two members of the Westminster Parliamentary Group, there will be two NEC members elected by all other Labour and Co-operative elected representatives e.g. MSPs, MSs, PCCs, elected mayors, London AMs and councillors.

Societies and affiliates

The NEC currently has two members appointed by the Co-operative Group and two elected by and from all other subscribing societies and affiliates plus a seat for Co-operatives UK, which has remained unfilled. The new NEC structure will keep the two seats for the Co-operative Group, plus the other two seats, which will be now restricted to subscribing retail societies only. A fifth NEC seat will be for all other subscribing non-retail societies, co-ops and affiliates, including Co-ops UK.

Rolling elections and continuity

The NEC discussed rolling elections as a measure to guard against excessive NEC turnover in a single election. This was supported by many who responded to the consultation and would have meant increasing the NEC term from 3 years to 4, and electing around half of the NEC places every two years. However, the NEC didn’t think it would be appropriate to introduce this in 2023 at the same time as a significant change to structure of the NEC, as it would have meant electing some new seats at that first election for a two-year term only.

This will be kept under review.

Next steps

The formal rule amendments necessary to implement the changes to the NEC will be published ahead of the Party’s AGM on 25 June. Following a vote at the AGM they will be sent to the Financial Conduct Authority for approval. The detailed process for the election will be agreed by the NEC before the end of the year and circulated ahead of the NEC elections in Spring 2022.

If your Party Council or Society hasn’t yet appointed delegates to the AGM, please complete this form by Friday 3 June.

Each quarter, the General Secretary reports to the NEC on the Party’s activity and progress towards our Strategic Objectives. Here is a summary of the most recent report, in February:

We have moved towards having 800 candidates and some of the key areas for us such as London, Scotland and Wales are showing signs of having good numbers of co-operative candidates coming through.

Within our plans is to deliver strong training and support to our candidates, therefore I’m happy to report that since the last report we have:

• Delivered one further round of Local Candidate training with a new external provider, which has received very positive feedback.
• Finished a second round of Parliamentary panel training and established the programme for the first new round in 2022.
• Opened our JLM training sessions to candidates, which has seen a positive take up.
• Brought our candidates’ hub up to date and, in light of feedback from earlier candidates, sought to ensure that it is visible and relevant to new candidates.
• Begun arranging the latest round of candidate training aimed at members of each equalities network.

Within our plans we have also been clear that we need to ensure we are in a position to have a strong co-operative voice through Labour Party Westminster selections. We have:

• Worked hard to ensure that we kept the Party’s rights with the sister party in relation to co-operative candidates being automatically longlisted.
• Continued to interview and adopt new candidates onto our Parliamentary panel.
• Pursued engagement with relevant Labour Party stakeholders.
• Continued to build our data on CLP delegates and Labour regional boards representatives.

Finally, we have a new Co-operative Candidate for the South Yorkshire Metro Mayoral election. Oliver Coppard was supported by members, and we now hope will be successful in May.

One of the dominating features of delivery within this strategic objective since the last report was the fantastic win the Party had in its work to support the opposition to the demutualising of LV= insurance mutual. This unexpected win was a tonic to many in the co-operative movement. At the end of our work in this area we were able to contribute:

• Online activity that stimulated 20,000 members and supporters to take action, with 15,000 of them co-signing a public letter to the Chief Executive of LV= headed by LV= member and Parliamentary Group member Alex Sobel MP.
• Grassroots work to link members of LV= to work being undertaken by the All Party Mutuals Group.
• Achieving national media coverage for our opposition to the sale to Bain Capital.
• Promoting the inquiry undertaken by the All-Party Group and its members.
• Social media and blog content.

In relation to our work on a new Employee buyout law and support (Marcora Law), Christina Rees MP has introduced a new Ten-Minute Rule Bill in Westminster on the topic. We have also:

• Secured a meeting with the Economy Secretary John Glen MP to discuss the proposal.
• Held discussions with Labour frontbench on the topic and Scottish MSPs welcomed the Bill’s introduction as a result of work in the area in Scotland.

We have commissioned leading think tank CLES to prepare a significant report looking at a Marcora Law in Wales and wider issues relating to the Welsh Government’s commitment to double the size of the co-op sector.

In relation to co-operative policy development, since the last report we have:

• Launched a co-operative rural and coastal rural review with Shadow Secretary of State and Party chair Jim McMahon MP. Following the call for evidence there will be roundtables and online journeys for those involved and local parties. This Commission will be chaired by Co-op Peer Steve Bassam.
• Our Co-operative Party Tower Hamlets commission is progressing well, and they are in the middle of their consultation events. Cllr Rachel Blake and Mayor John Biggs are leading this work.
• As announced at Co-operative Party Conference, we ran a West Yorkshire Co-operative Summit with Co-op Mayor Tracy Brabin. This event brought together a range of co-operative stakeholders in the region.

Other areas of activity in relation to this strategic objective included work on a 2015 call for a People’s BBC – we used the Westminster Government’s announcement in relation to the licence fee to run our campaign lines. New work in this area is on-going but we:

• Issued a popular call to action on this which saw a petition add nearly 10k new signatures.
• Engaged with the BBC’s main recognised Union looking at joint working and carried content from them.
• Engaged with the Labour Party frontbench with a view to future policy and communications.

The Party has launched the 2022 Member-led policy process, which centres on health and international development. The consultations are now open and support for branches to get involved is available.

In Scotland, Lab & Co-op MSP Paul Sweeney has become the Chair of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on co-operatives and the Scottish Party issued strong co-operative content ahead the Scottish Government’s budget. Still in Scotland, the Party has supported the introduction of Rhoda Grant’s Right to Food bill and following call to evidence.

Finally, just ahead of Christmas a Backbench Business Committee debate took place on the topic of the co-operative economy, lead by Conservative MP Steve Baker. The Party helped Co-ops UK shape the debate and helped with generating cross party support for it. Co-operative MPs were the dominant feature of the debate carrying great co-operative content.

A lot of our communications work through this period centred upon the violence against retail workers win, the LV= campaign win and the BBC work described above. However other significant work in the area has included a fresh call to action on the Westminster Government’s renewed plan to use the pesticide Cruiser SB, which will harm bee populations. This has brought new co-signed letters with 10,000 signatures and has been led by Jim McMahon MP.

Outside of the communications work located in this strategic objective, since the last report we have delivered:

• Conferences in Wales and London and SE, East). The conferences had good programmes that featured our member-led policy process, community power and our asks for local government manifestos.
• The Welsh Conference was addressed by the First Minister Mark Drakeford, who launched a new Welsh Party consultation on to co-operative solutions within health and social care.
• The Party’s new health member-led policy process, which was spoken to by Shadow Health Minister Andrew Gwynne and Miatta Fahnbullah of NEF.
• The Party also delivered a successful Local Government Conference addressed by the Shadow Secretary of State, new Mayor Joanne Anderson from Liverpool, figures from local government and metro mayors. This was a well attended conference, well delivered as it came quickly after annual conference.
• The Party’s ‘Co-operation Live’ sessions have continued with high quality sessions covering issues such as demutualisation with the BSA, parish and district council activity, and a post Cop26 event with Ed Miliband MP.
• During Cop26 itself the Party carried co-operative calls to action and content from both Preet Kaur Gill MP and Jim McMahon MP, who both attended the conference.

As we build towards Local Elections 2022 it has been great to see an uptick in Councils passing Co-operative Party motions on campaigning areas such as FairTax, Food Justice and High Streets. This activity can be seen with:

• High St campaign motions passed – Liverpool and Newcastle City Councils.
• Modern slavery charter motion passed by East Cheshire.
• FairTax passed by Newcastle and Exeter City Councils

Key aspects of our strategic planning relate to increasing individual and organisational members. Therefore I am pleased to report that :

• Individual membership growth continued to be strong through the period of reporting which took the party to a 13,000-member organisation. This is an historic high.
• Membership income finished in 2021 at an historic high of £410,000 and a little ahead of target.
• We held two new organisational member events – this is an important area of our work and sees us engage with hundreds of co-operatives each quarter.

To generate new work within our Local Parties we have issued:

• Guides to Party Officers on the topic of Healthy Start Vouchers.
• Campaigning actions for Co-op Party CLP delegates.
• Party activity calls to local Parties on the issue of the BBC.

As previously reported, to ensure value for party membership we have continued co-operation live events, support for equality network events, training and sessions and our conference programme.

In relation to our work with member Societies, the massive win was the change of law in relation to violence against retail workers. However, outside of this work we have:

• Brought new focus and statistics to our healthy start vouchers at Christmas to tie in with Societies’ Christmas focus on food justice.
• Met with each Society representative since Christmas ensuring that our priority areas align with theirs.
• Carried content from Society activity such as new community larders that the Co-op Group are developing.

It has been great to agree the Party’s 2022 strategic plan as well the 2022-2024 3-year strategic plan. As highlighted within our 2022 plan we have been able to continue the work of the Party’s organisers and equality officer through the whole of 2022. The Party has also begun detailed work to produce work that will plot a sustainable future for future years with these members of staff onboard.

In relation to the organisational and financially sustainable boosts achieved through membership growth and membership income growth was the news that our supporter list continues to grow and turned the year at just under 80,000.

In addition to this the Party has undertaken recruitment for two new colleagues to replace our outgoing Policy Officer and the previous Equalities Officer, as well as the new temporary part-time membership assistant role.

In addition we have:

• Conducted two JLM training sessions with NEC reps, CPDC and candidates. The candidate one in particular was well attended.
• We have delivered two Safelives training sessions for NEC members and Co-operative Party Disciplinary Committee members.
• Moved towards contract exchange with Victim Support in relation to the Disciplinary process.
• Started to see results from our new targeted focus on renewing and lapsed members. There are targeted communications from the Party at least every two weeks in this area.
• We have started to develop a ‘New Officer Pipeline’ – this work has seen the party deliver potential new officer training and conservation sessions. This work will expand over the coming months.

At the turn of the year we reached the milestone of 13,000 individual members (13,003)

This reflects ongoing strong recruitment, low arrears and resignations, and better retention –join rates for several months of 2021 have been amongst the highest since modern records.

Total recruitment for 2021 was 1,910 – this includes both new joiners and those renewing after a lapsed pause.

Total active supporter list (at 31 January 2022) is 72,087. Converting supporters to members is our main recruitment source – this growth has been driven by strong campaign and policy output, and social media advertising.

Our recruitment of members identifying as BAME, with a Disability or as LGBTQI+ continues to increase as a share of total membership and as a result of recent Equalities campaigns from data gathered through join, renewal and other campaigns.

See here for details of the NEC. You can contact the NEC at nec@party.coop or by emailing Karen Wilkie, Board Secretary at board@party.coop.