Co-operative model will be at the heart of Labour’s manifesto

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

On Monday morning, Gordon Brown will convene a special Downing Street seminar in which he is due to say:

“I have asked Ed Miliband to work with the Co-operative party as we draft the Labour manifesto for the forthcoming election, so that co-operative and mutual ideals are an integral part of Labour’s platform.”

According to the Guardian, a Downing Street source said the PM – who is the first ever member of the Co-operative Party to reach Number 10 – wants to draw heavily on the Co-op Party manifesto for Labour’s own plans for public services.

Starting with last summer’s Co-operative Party guest editorship of LabourList, we have been campaigning for more mutual and co-operative types of public services for months.

In my interview with Tessa Jowell in December, the Cabinet Office minister told me “mutualism is the next stage of New Labour.”

Ed Balls announced his intention for 200 more Co-op Trust schools on LabourList in September.

And last week, Ms Jowell said Manchester’s Co-ops point the way for the future of public services.