As a Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament I welcome  renewed interest in  ideas of co-operation and mutualism.  Firms where members of staff have a big ownership stake and say in decisions create happier workers. Worker co-operatives and employee owned businesses like the John Lewis partnership thrive across a range of sectors, and can provide a better and more stable future for our economy. As a result of Labour policies over the last twelve years, there are now more new mutuals across public services. There are now 126 foundation trust hospitals,  (like the  highly successful North East London Foundation Trust which runs Goodmayes Hospital and mental health services in Redbridge), with over 1.5 million members drawn from patients, employees, carers and the wider community.  There are now 36 co-operative trust schools giving  parents, pupils and staff real control over the school and its ethos. These are not just run by employees but allow everyone involved in the organisation, be they parents, patients, workers or pupils a real say over how they are run.

There is another difference between true co-operatives and the version being put forward by the Conservatives. The Tories want co-operatives to go into joint ventures with outside organisations, diverting revenues into the hands of private businesses rather than being reinvested in providing a better service for taxpayers and users. We need new mutualism and real co-operatives not back door privatisation of our public services. If  David Cameron now believes in mutuality he should apologise for his party’s wholesale destruction of the building society sector through the 1986 Building Societies Act, which resulted in  demutualised banks like Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley and Halifax which by their irresponsible policies led us into the current financial crisis.  Cameron should also apologise for the action of the last Conservative  government when he was a  special advisor which abolished the Co-operative  Development Agency which over 10 years created almost 2,000 worker co-operatives with 25,000 jobs.