The Co-operative Party

Ed Miliband today visited a childcare co-operative in Edinburgh, a City with a Co-operative Council. In a speech during his visit and in a piece written for the Daily Record, Ed pledged Labour would take the lead in reaching out to communities and individuals not involved in the traditional party system.

Ed came to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital to learn from a workers’ co-op formed when their nursery was faced with cuts. Staff members came together to take on the service themselves two years ago and the service is now thriving. The organisation is democratically run and not-for-profit.

The Morningside Children’s Nursery was one of the co-ops which inspired Edinburgh Labour and Co-operative Party activists. Labour in Edinburgh heavily promoted the use of co-operatives in this year’s local council election campaign with a dedicated co-operative manifesto, as previously outlined by Councillor Paul Godzik.

Mr Miliband said: “People can change their communities. And people can change politics too.”

“Struggling to find decent childcare is a problem which every family in the country understands. The parents at Morningside had already found good care so when the nursery was threatened with closure it was a disaster for families and staff.

“But staff came up with a solution – they turned their nursery into a co-operative. They kept it open in the community’s hands.

“And their action hasn’t just changed their community. Labour councillors across Edinburgh took up the idea at the local elections and are now trying to create co-operatives across the city.

“That’s the kind of real change that politics needs. Great ideas will come from the communities we are rooted in.”

Ed was joined in Scotland by Labour & Co-operative MSP Johann Lamont, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party.