Ex-Salford MP Hazel Blears lands £60k Co-op director job

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-32804261

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

The ex-government minister was elected by the group's members at their annual general meeting on Saturday.

Ms Blears, 59, has been a member of the Co-op for more than 20 years, stood down as an MP at this month's general election.

She said the group was a "great worthwhile mission".

Ms Blears will be expected to work a minimum of one to two days a month holding the chief executive and higher management of the group to account in her new role, the group said.

Sixty-five per cent of members voted in favour of her being elected as a director.

Ms Blears, who represented Salford as a Labour MP since 1997, said she believed "more could and should have been done to address the underlying problems of skills, competence and the management and governance of the group."

The Manchester-based Co-op is the UK's largest mutually-owned organisation with more than eight million members who share in the profits of the business.

It made a profit of £124m in 2014, compared with a loss of £255m the previous year.

The Co-operative Wholesale Society was formed in Greater Manchester in 1863 and later became known as the Co-operative Group.