'Why It Matters Andy Burnham Is Set To Be The UK's First Labour And Co-operative PM'

Writing for HuffPost UK, the Co-operative Party's general secretary Joe Fortune unpacks the significance of the Makerfield MP's expected move into No.10.

What is Burnham's plan for No.10 North?

What does the YouGov poll say about Burnham's leadership?

Why is Burnham seen as Labour's best chance?

What would it mean to have the first Labour and Co-operative prime minister?

It’s a question I have been asked several times over the last few weeks, as General Secretary of a Co-operative Party about to hit one hundred years of electoral agreement with Labour.

My answer is simple: it would be a landmark moment, not just for the Co-operative Party, but for the wider co-operative movement and for British politics.

We are living through a remarkable period of firsts, with co-operative politics on the cusp of unprecedented opportunity.

In just the last two years we have seen the first ever government elected with a clear and ambitious programme to grow the co-operative and mutual economy, the first ever Labour and Co-operative secretary of state for business and trade in Jonathan Reynolds, the first significant programme of support for community-owned energy, the introduction of England’s first Community Right to Buy, and more Labour and Co-operative members sitting around the cabinet table than the Party had across the previous seven decades combined.

For the first time, growing the co-operative economy has become part of the chancellor’s economic narrative, featuring in Budgets and Mansion House........

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