Former Salford MP, Hazel Blears, has landed a new job as a £60,000 a year director of the Co-operative Group.

The ex-government minister, famous for wearing a ‘rock the boat’ brooch when she resigned from Gordon Brown’s cabinet, was elected at a stormy AGM in Manchester.

As a member nominated director she will receive £60,000 a year and be expected to work a minimum of one to two days a month holding the chief executive and higher management to account.

Ms Blears, who stepped down from Westminster this month, after representing the city since 1997 in a safe Labour seat, told the M.E.N.: “I want to visit stores, and talk to staff and customers. I want to take the temperature across the country.

“It is important that the people that run the organisation understand grass roots feeling.”

She said the group ‘had a job to do’ to restore its damaged image. Last year its former chairman, Methodist minister Paul Flowers, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, crystal meth, and ketamine.

Ms Blears, 59, added: “The Co-op is a member-owned organisation, with 2.8m members. I want to make sure the voice of ordinary members is heard.”

Asked if she would be working more than one to days a month for her £60,000, she said: “I anticipate it will require a degree of commitment greater than that.”

A total of 64.57 per cent of members voted in favour of her being elected as a director, and 35.43 per cent against.

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On the Co-op website she said: “As a member of Co-operative Group for over 20 years I know that Co-op members like you want the Group to succeed providing top quality food and services to our communities at fair prices, sharing our profits, and helping those in need - it’s a great worthwhile mission.”

She added: “I believe that more could and should have been done to address the underlying problems of skills, competence and the management and governance of the Group.”

Originally there were six candidates standing for the posts but three were stopped from standing, leaving Blears and two others unopposed for the three positions. Some furious members of the Co-op said the voting process was “neither transparent, nor objective”.

Ms Blears has also applied to be a trustee of the Alzheimer’s Society.