Brighton & Hove Labour Councillors will from now on be known as Labour & Co-operative Councillors, as the group unanimously decided to change their name at an annual meeting last night.

Following last week’s elections, all Labour councillors in the city are now Labour and Co-operative members, so it was seen as the perfect opportunity to reflect this in the group’s formal title. The Brighton & Hove group will be the first in the country to officially adopt the Labour & Co-operative title.

Labour and the Co-operative parties have run joint candidates since 1927, including the city’s very own David Lepper. There are currently 28 Labour & Co-operative sponsored MPs, including Ed Balls.

Brighton & Hove Labour & Co-operative Group Deputy Leader, Councillor Warren Morgan, said:

“Following the local elections, we realised that all 13 elected Labour Councillors were also members of the Co-operative Party, so we felt the time was right to rename the group’s formal title to reflect this.

“There have been Labour and Co-operative councillors in Brighton and Hove for decades- David Lepper was a Labour and Co-operative MP for the city for over 13 years, so this is a natural progression of a long tradition.

“There are dozens of successful co-ops in the city, as well as the familiar high street Co-operative businesses and we hope to further reflect and represent those organisations and values in our policies in the future.”

Co-operative Party General Secretary, Michael Stephenson, said:

“I am delighted that Brighton & Hove now have a Labour & Co-operative group on the council and I certainly think it will be welcomed locally. At some point I hope Brighton and Hove will join councils like Lambeth and Oldham in having a Co-operative council.

“Brighton & Hove’s Labour & Co-operative group will now be on the forefront of promoting Co-operative Party policies based on democratic and mutual principles, which are more popular than ever, particularly in areas like fair trade, mutualisation of the banks, co-op schools and energy co-ops.”