The full transcript of last night’s Fabian hustings event, with Gordon Brown, John McDonnell and Michael Meacher, can now be read on the new Fabian website, at the link below.

http://fabians.org.uk/events/hustings-07-leaders/speech

We were very keen to ensure that there was a chance to debate the major issues facing the party and the government.  The Fabian Society would like to thank the Institute of Education for hosting the event at short notice and so well. Many thanks to our members, and those of our partners - Labour Students, Progress and the Young Fabians – for coming along to take part and make the event a success.

With around 100 audience questions submitted, we could cover only a small number in an hour and a half. You might be interested to know that the most popular theme of the questions submitted – by some distance – was inequality, life chances and extending opportunity, with several questions on how Labour could narrow the gaps in our society and on how the 2020 target to meet child poverty could be met.

As the foreign policy discussion and floor contributions demonstrated, members were also keen to discuss a wide range of important international questions – Israel and Palestine; Iraq; Iran; Darfur and humanitarian intervention; global poverty and development, and Europe. This will be an important focus for the Fabian Society in the build-up to January’s New Year Conference on international issues.

Questions on challenges of rebuilding Labour’s membership and of appealing beyond Labour’s core support to win the next election were also a popular theme: we hope that this will also be an important issue for the Deputy Leadership debate which the Fabian Society and Progress hold this Wednesday night.