Peter Hunt is a British politician and

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

activist and thinker. He was until March 2008

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the

Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party () is a centre-left List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. The party currently has an electoral pact with the Labour Party. E ...

and is as of 2008 chief executive of the

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

Mutuo. Educated at Comprehensive School in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

and at

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

, Hunt joined the Labour Party in 1983 and worked in housing and IT before joining the

in 1994, working as regional organiser for the South of England. In 1998, Hunt was appointed General Secretary of the Party. The Co-operative Party had arguably been in a long decline and Hunt's immediate priority was to secure the position and finances of the Party and its relationship with the new Labour government. He also rejuvenated the Party's policy making and broadened its scope. He relaunched the Party's magazine, ''New Mutualism'', and started a series of policy pamphlets under the same name. One of these, ''New Mutualism: A Golden Goal?'' inspired the creation of

Supporters Direct Supporters Direct was an umbrella organisation set up originally by the British government (with cross-party support) to provide support and assistance for its member trusts to secure a greater level of accountability and deliver democratic rep ...

and a new generation of mutual organisations—football

supporters' trust In British sports, a supporters' trust is a formal, democratic and not-for-profit organisation of Fan (person), fans who attempt to strengthen the influence of supporters over the running of the club they support. There are over 140 supporters' tru ...

s. Another, ''New Mutualism: The Third Way'' (1998) by

Peter Kellner Peter Jon Kellner (born 2 October 1946) is an English journalist, former BBC ''Newsnight'' reporter, political commentator, and former president of the YouGov opinion polling organisation in the United Kingdom. He is known for his appearances ...

, was a key piece of thinking in the early '

Third Way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

' phase of

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

. Hunt launched Mutuo in 2000 as a think tank for the wider mutual sector, attracting support from

building societies A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...

, friendly societies and

mutual insurer A mutual insurance company is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders. It is a form of consumers' co-operative. Any profits earned by a mutual insurance company are either retained within the company or rebated to policyholders ...

s. Mutuo took on much of the policy publishing, with many publications by leading thinkers and politicians in the field. ''Making Healthcare Mutual'', co-written by Hunt,

Hazel Blears Hazel Anne Blears (born 14 May 1956) is a British former Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) successively for the constituencies of Salford and Salford and Eccles between 1997 and 2015. One of 101 female ...

and Cliff Mills, called for a locally accountable NHS and underpinned the only successful amendment to the Act on foundation hospitals. As general secretary, Hunt sat on the

National Policy Forum The National Policy Forum (NPF) of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the Party, set up by Leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process. A Provisional National Policy Forum had been established by Bla ...

of the Labour Party. In early 2008, Hunt announced he would be stepping down as general secretary of the Co-operative Party in March 2008. On 19 February 2019 Hunt announced his resignation from the Labour Party with a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', denouncing an hostile environment inside the party and claiming that

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

did not represent his political values. He remained a member of the Co-operative Party.

Books

*''Making Healthcare Mutual - a publicly funded, locally accountable NHS'', by

, Cliff Mills and Peter Hunt (Mutuo, 2002) *''Back Home: Returning football clubs to their communities'', by Christine Oughton, Cobbetts Solicitors, Malcolm McClean of Community Action Network and Peter Hunt (Mutuo, 2003) *''Care on Call – a mutual approach to out of hours primary care services'', by Peter Hunt, Cliff Mills of Cobbetts Solicitors and John Hutton (Mutuo, 2004) *''The People's Rail: A Mutually Run, Publicly Accountable Network Rail'', by Robbie Erbmann and Peter Hunt (The Co-operative Party, 2008)

References

*Rosen, Greg. ''Serving the People: Co-operative Party history from Fred Perry to Gordon Brown'' (2007), London, the Co-operative Party.

External links

the Co-operative PartyMutuo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Peter 1966 births Co-operative Party politicians General secretaries of the Co-operative Party Labour Party (UK) officials Living people