Conservative MP Jo Gideon was speaking in the Commons shortly before the chamber gave its backing to a Private Member's Bill intended to provide greater protections for mutual company assets in the event the business is taken over by investors.
Ms Gideon said: “We shouldn't allow capital to be blown at the will of speculators and investors. It is important to lock capital in the places where it belongs, for the benefit of the people it was invested for.”
The MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central added: “This Bill provides an opportunity to rediscover and promote the co-operative model. I'd like to add at this point, I don't know if members have seen the film the Bank Of Dave, it's a very inspirational story of the gentleman from Burnley who set up a bank for the benefit of the community.
“I personally have been campaigning for this sort of thing in Stoke-on-Trent, because I think that to have a financial model that enables people to lend to each other but also to benefit and for community charities to benefit from the profits, is a model that we should all be looking at.”
