Labour and Co-operative (often abbreviated
Labour Co-op) describes those candidates in
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
elections standing on behalf of both the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
and the
Co-operative PartyThe Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom committed to supporting and representing co-operative principles. The party does not put up separate candidates for any UK election itself. Instead, Co-operative candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party as "Labour...
, based on a national agreement between the two parties.
Relationship with Labour Party
Although many Labour Party candidates, and over 200 of the current
Parliamentary Labour PartyIn UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party is the parliamentary party of the Labour Party in Parliament: Labour MPs as a collective body....
, are members of the Co-operative Party, including
Ed MilibandEdward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
and most colleagues from his Shadow Cabinet, only those candidates who have been officially endorsed by both parties may use the designation Labour Co-operative — 44 candidates in the 2010 elections of which 28 were elected. Only Labour Co-operative MPs and
peerThe Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
s belong to the parliamentary Co-operative Party group.
At a local level, where wards may elect more than one councillor, only those where all candidates are supported by the Co-operative Party may use the designation on ballot papers and leaflets. In the list systems used for elections to the
European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
,
Scottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
, Welsh Assembly and
London AssemblyThe London Assembly is an elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds majority, to amend the mayor's annual budget. The assembly was established in 2000 and is headquartered at City Hall on the south...
, the designation has not been used. This convention has been adopted ostensibly to avoid confusion between a mix of candidates that could lead to a reduction in the Labour vote. Nevertheless, there have been Labour Co-operative candidates in the single-member constituencies in those bodies and the Co-operative Party continues to support and promote constituency and list members of those assemblies and the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.
Logo
Labour Co-operative candidates use the Labour logo on ballot papers, although a variety of hybrid logos have in the past been used on promotional literature.