Jesse Norman MP has warmly welcomed the announcement today by David Cameron that the Government is planning a new Co-operatives Bill to enhance and extend co-operative ownership in the UK.

The MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire is the founder of the Conservative Co-operative Movement, which now has over 40 Conservative MPs as members, and also authored a highly influential recent paper on Crony Capitalism.

Speaking after the Prime Minister's speech, Mr Norman said:

"We have been working towards a new piece of legislation on co-operatives for some time now, so the Prime Minister's announcement is massively welcome.

"At present co-ops are governed by over a dozen pieces of separate law, so a consolidation and updating is badly needed. But this is also a huge opportunity for the Government to level the playing field for co-ops and mutuals, and to give greater encouragement to the creation of new co-ops.

"I am especially pleased that it is a Conservative Prime Minister who is leading the way, and in 2012, the International Year of the Co-operative.

"Co-ops are not the possession of any one political party, even the Co-operative party itself. Nor are they a panacea. But they are a very important component of the transition from the Crony Capitalism of the last decade to a fairer and better market economy."