Star date: 18th May 2015

EX SALFORD MP RUNS INTO MORE CONTROVERSY

At a turbulent Annual General Meeting of the Co-operative Group, held in Manchester over the weekend, Hazel Blears became a Member-Nominated Director (MND) on a basic fee of £60,000 a year which will take up `a minimum of approximately one to two days a month'.

Originally there were six candidates standing for the MND but three were stopped from standing, leaving Blears and two others unopposed for the three positions. Furious members of the Co-op said the voting process was "neither transparent, nor objective" and threatened legal action, until it was averted at the last minute.

Full details here...

Hazel Blears, the Salford and Eccles MP who stood down at this month's General Election, has found herself a new position as a Member-Nominated Director (MND) of the Co-operative Group, on a basic fee of £60,000 a year which will take up `a minimum of approximately one to two days a month'.

Following previous MP misdemeanours surrounding Hazel Blears - including the expenses scandal, the £1,000 a day job at a security company and being a guest of the anti-human rights Bahrain Government – this latest controversy almost brought legal action from the Co-op's own members.

To be a MND, applicants had to have skills including "the highest standard of integrity", "financial and commercial acumen" and "awareness of the operational issues involved in managing a business the size of the Group".

Six candidates were nominated by the Members' Council for the three MND posts but a committee, led by controversial Co-op chairman Allan Leighton, rejected three of them for a lack of "commercial acumen". This left just Hazel Blears and two others to stand unopposed for the places on the Board.

Before the Co-op's Annual General Meeting in Manchester this weekend, furious members of the Midcounties Co-op threatened legal action against a voting process that was "neither transparent, nor objective". And to stave off open revolt, the Co-op management had to issue a statement hours before the AGM promising a `review' and a new process to select candidates in future.

A statement by the Co-operative Group did everything but apologise to members for the democracy deficit at the heart of its structure... "The board and council have committed to work together to develop enhanced arrangements for future elections" it read "Work to improve the process will begin immediately after the AGM with the firm objective of achieving a contested election for the next MND election process..." Hazel Blears was duly elected at the AGM but 36% of members actively voted against her.

Hazel Blears wasn't the only Co-op Fat Cat to come under fire at the turbulent meeting. Members also railed against extortionate pay within the Group, including the £2.5million paid to Chief Exec Richard Pennycook. And at the entrance to the AGM disgruntled Co-op members gave out apples in protest at remarks made by ex-ASDA and Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton, for comments made in The Guardian stating; "It's the apples, not the activists, that will turn the Co-op around."

Meanwhile, Hazel Blears can buy a lot of apples with her freshly found £60,000 `remuneration'...

* See also previous Salford Star article: Hazel Blears pushing to be a Co-op director - click here