Hazel Blears won a BBC straw poll of Fabian and Progress members following the Fabian Society and Progress hustings debate with all six candidates for the Labour party deputy leadership.

A good humoured debate at the Institute of Education, London, chaired by The Guardian's Michael White, saw the candidates debate democracy, the constitution, education, housing, foreign policy and climate change. In the BBC Newsnight ballot, held as audience members left the event, Hazel Blears (26%) and Hilary Benn (22%) led on first preferences, ahead of Alan Johnson (15%), Harriet Harman (14%), Jon Cruddas (13%) and Peter Hain (10%).

Some of the most interesting clashes between candidates were over education. Peter Hain stressed that he had abolished the eleven plus in Northern Ireland. Alan Johnson said that all of the candidates were against selection but that a manifesto pledging to get rid of academies, faith schools and the remaining grammar schools might get a round of applause from a party audience but that, electorally, it 'would be the shortest suicide note in history'. Hazel Blears offered a strong defence of academies, as giving hope and aspiration to working-class children, with only Jon Cruddas questioning the academy model.

While Peter Hain argued that the history of Church of England and Catholic schools meant that these had to be extended to other faiths, Harriet Harman argued against this. New faith schools should have to meet the test of whether they would divide communities, she said, in comments which suggested she opposed the creation of new Muslim faith schools. This was challenged by Education Secretary Alan Johnson, who argued that bringing Muslim schools into the maintained sector and putting a duty to promote community cohesion on all schools was the right policy.

The event began with each candidate given three minutes to set out their pitch for the deputy leadership.

Peter Hain argued that 'the biggest challenge we face is restoring trust'. The deputy role was about 'reconnecting Labour's leaders with grassroots members' and 'reaching out to all of those that we have lost touch with', pledging to be 'the umbilical cord between the Cabinet and grassroots members'.

Jon Cruddas, the only backbencher in the race, said he had entered the race to prevent it being 'a beauty contest within the Cabinet' and pledged to make the deputy leadership 'a full time job to rebuild the party on the ground' to win back four and a half million lost votes.

Hilary Benn, debating before he had confirmed the 45 nominations for leader, promised to be 'absolutely unapologetic about our values' and arguing that 'the gap between rich and poor is the biggest challenge we face'. But Benn later ran into trouble with audience members when answering a question about how Labour could appeal to women.

Harriet Harman said that she and Gordon Brown would prove a 'winning ticket', asking 'do we really need another man to be deputy leader? Labour is the party of equality, with men and women working together'.

Hazel Blears pledged to be the party's 'campaigner in chief' and called for a new party unity: 'No more Blairites. No more Brownites. Just Labour. We're all Labour and, if anybody hasn't noticed, Granita is closed'.

Alan Johnson said that Labour was 'now more comfortable as a party in government' and argued that staying in the centre-ground had enabled Labour to shift British politics to the left, pursuing the party's values of 'a more equal society: greater equality and the eradication of poverty'.

Most of the candidates supported a public inquiry on Iraq. Harriet Harman said that she hoped troops would be withdrawn 'as soon as possible' and that there would then need to be an inquiry, which should also learn the lessons of the failure of post-war planning. Jon Cruddas said that 'there is a case for an inquiry as part of a reconciliation with the British people over Iraq', arguing that the change of Prime Minister offered a chance to 'turn the page' and to 'acknowledge that it has been a disaster'.

Alan Johnson said that 'whether we want one or not, there will probably be an inquiry' and Hain acknowledged 'that there may well be a case' but warned that it was unlikely to resolve the issue. Hazel Blears took a similar position, and was concerned that calling for inquiries had become a 'default position' because of a loss of trust in politics. Hilary Benn stressed that the issue in Iraq now is whether to support a struggling democracy against a terrorist threat. Benn won applause for a strong advocacy of the need to protect human rights, citing the cases of Rwanda, Kosovo and Sierra Leone.

On electoral reform, only Alan Johnson advocated proportional representation with Harman, Blears and Benn all opposing PR on the grounds that it risked the MP-constituency link. Peter Hain argued that the Alternative Vote would mean that all MPs needed the support of 50% of their constituents, which only one third of MPs have at present.

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