Just a few months ago, the future of the Co-operative Party hung in the balance, with a vote held at the Co-operative Group AGM on whether or not to continue our century-old relationship. We succeeded that day because of the support we got from within the co-operative movement but also with the help of our friends and partners in the Labour family. Thank you.

When an organisation you are part of faces such challenging times, and all of the demands that result from it, friends and family not involved in politics inevitably ask you ‘is it worth it?’ The more they asked the question the more certain I was that the answer was yes. That is why I decided to apply to be our General Secretary when Karin Christiansen announced she was standing down in the summer: because I know that our Party has not only an incredibly proud past but also an important future.

But in order to honour the support and commitment that the co-operative movement, our members and supporters showed us, we need to live up to our own high expectations. The Party has achieved great things but there is always scope to learn and change.

I may have been the internal candidate for this job but I am not the status quo candidate.

Therefore, over the months ahead the Co-operative Party will do things differently.

You will see us taking a more distinctive approach. The Co-operative Party is an independent political party with an electoral agreement with the Labour Party. We have our own party conference, our own policy agenda and a movement – the co-operative movement – whose ideas, achievements and interests we exist to promote. We must be more self-confident in how we express this.

I want the Co-operative Party to make a more vibrant and visible contribution to British political debate and play a full role in the growing and energised left movement which has been stimulated in large part by the election of Labour’s new leadership team.

In the new year you will see the Party developing and championing a new generation of co-operative policy ideas. These will take the 150 year old co-operative principles and demonstrate how they can be a powerful force for fairness, equality and solidarity in the 21st century. The Co-operative Party will be fearless and passionate advocates for economic policies which enable workers to truly share in the ownership, profits and decision-making of British businesses; and we will develop proposals for new models of public ownership which put employees and citizens at their heart.

Secondly, you will also see our members and councillors mobilised with a renewed vigour in local communities. We are proud to have launched the new Co-operative Action Network (CAN) – led by Stella Creasy MP. CAN events will take place around Britain, bringing together Co-operative Party members and supporters, and others who share our values, to develop new campaigns and projects to meet the challenges facing our communities.

We know that we can’t wait until the 2020 General Election to try to change Britain for the better. The co-operative movement has self-help and self-responsibility at its heart. That is why, faced with injustice in the past, the movement didn’t simply protest, it got busy forming co-operatives for example in food, housing, energy and financial services to provide a real alternative. This is the spirit that will drive the Co-operative Action Network and the whole Co-operative Party forward.

The Labour Party and the Co-operative Party have stood joint candidates in elections since 1927. We have won together, and in May this year, we lost together. As Labour begins to rebuild itself, so the Co-operative Party will be renewing, re-thinking and re-energising ourselves too. The future is ours to shape.

Claire McCarthy, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party