Co-op News (August 2019)

Looking Back
Interview by
Anca Voinea
Claire McCarthy looks back on her years at the helm of the Co-op Party
After almost four years as general secretary of the
Co-op Party, Claire McCarthy left the organisation
in July. She initially joined the Party in 2013 as
head of external and political affairs before being
appointed to the top role in October 2015. Here,
she tells Co-op News why she has chosen to move
to a local government team – and gives her view
on what the future might bring for the Party...
What comes next for you?
You look at national politics and the nation seems
very divided – politics in Westminster seems to be
almost in gridlock but at local level there is a lot going
on. At this level of government, you can make a big
difference – so I have been inspired to go and take up
a role in a local authority.
I’ve been inspired by some of the exciting innovations
taking place at local government level. We talk about
the Preston model and the work being done there to
drive forward community wealth building. The model
has now spread far beyond Preston and there are local
authorities all over the country using it. Some of the
work on modern slavery has been really successful
at this level, too, as have projects such as the Greater
Manchester Co-operative commission launched by
Andy Burnham (see interview, page 26). It shows that,
actually, we can face up to these huge challenges.
Would you welcome more devolution?
Absolutely. The Co-op Party has always been an
advocate of what we call subsidiarity – we believe
that power should be at the lowest possible level.
We are very supportive of devolution in Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland. People have different
views on metro mayors but, in general terms, we
think that power should be much less centralised
in Westminster and Whitehall than it is. When we
think about Brexit, and some of the drivers behind
it, some people who voted leave felt that Brussels
was very remote from their everyday life; but
actually, for lots of communities, Westminster and
Whitehall feel very remote as well. We know that
people have a sense of powerlessness about lots of
things that go on in their lives – powerlessness in
their communities, in their workplace, in the face
of globalisation and huge multinational companies
that don’t pay taxes – and they feel that these are
not accountable to anyone. In part, we can challenge
all of those issues through more devolution of all
different kinds from Whitehall and Westminster,
all the way down to communities and groups
of individuals.
24 | AUGUST 2019