It’s been a busy few days for the Co-operative Party at this year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, with our ideas and campaigns being at the heart of some of Labour’s announcements.

From expanding community-owned energy to tackling retail crime, here’s a quick round-up of the major campaign wins which members like you made possible.

Promoting our policies

Retail Crime

No one should face abuse at work but for too many retail workers  across the country, it’s become an everyday routine. Alongside our members, co-operative retail societies and the trade union USDAW, we’ve long campaigned to make sure threats, violence and abuse are not part of the job.

During Conference, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper used her speech on the main stage to announce that a Labour and Co-operative government would introduce a new law and tougher sentences to end violence against shopworkers. This is a huge campaign win and pays credit to the hard work to all those who have stood with us.

Shadow Policing Minister Alex Norris also met with Co-operative Police and Crime Commissioners alongside candidates to discuss more about how we can tackle increasing cases of retail crime together.

Community Energy

Shadow Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband also took to the main conference stage to reaffirm Labour’s commitment to turbocharging community-owned energy. The Local Power Plan will invest up to a billion pounds annually in green energy schemes, with £400m earmarked for community-owned energy. This will create up to a million new owners of energy, and will mark the biggest expansion of community-owned energy the country has ever seen.

Local ownership

At our fringe on local ownership and community power, Shadow Minister Paula Barker reiterated Labour’s plan to empower local people and help them take control of the local spaces and places they love. This follows our campaign to #UnlocktheHighStreet and on Community Power. We also saw our proposed ideas on community right to buy come through the NPF to become official Labour conference policy.

Promoting our movement

It was wonderful to see our General Secretary Joe Fortune deliver the Co-operative Party fraternal greetings in the main conference hall. He used the moment to reiterate the strength of our relationship with the Labour Party and how the Co-operative Party is ready to play our part ahead of the next general election.

Conference also agreed to sign off the NPF document which provides a blueprint for Labour Party policy ahead of the next General Election. We’re pleased to see mentions of co-op childcare, agriculture co-ops, community right to buy, double the size, credit unions, co-op housing, amongst much else in the document.

Also as always, we held a full fringe programme with partners across the movement on issues such as growing the co-operative sector and why rural wins for Labour, which I was proud to contribute to myself as Chair of the Party.

Away from the Conference Hall and packed fringe rooms, the Co-operative Party were pleased to meet hundreds of Co-op Party members and supporters at our stall – with many people also deciding to become our newest members.

Thank you to all those who made this Labour Conference such a brilliant success – we can’t wait to do it all over again next year under, hopefully, a Labour and Co-operative government in Number Ten.