Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer set to headline Fabians conference

London mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leadership candidate Keir Starmer are set to headline the Fabian Society’s new year conference on Saturday.

Five weeks after Labour’s general election defeat, which produced an 80-seat Tory majority, the party-affiliated organisation will ask: “What next? The left in the 2020s”.

The event held in partnership with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) will discuss the 2019 election result, assess the consequences for Brexit and map a way forward for the left.

Labour parliamentarians speaking will include Jonathan Ashworth, Hilary Benn, Dawn Butler, Kate Green, Seema Malhotra, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting, Theresa Griffin and Rory Palmer.

The speaker list also features experts and high-profile commentators such as Sir John Curtice, Ayesha Hazarika, Mathew Lawrence of Common Wealth, Anand Menon and Polly Toynbee.

As London mayor and Labour’s candidate for the 2020 mayoral election, Sadiq Khan will deliver the keynote speech in the morning and answer questions in the session afterwards.

The conference will close with an ‘in conversation’ event between Starmer – the MP local to the venue, the Shadow Brexit Secretary and a frontrunner in the leadership race – and Ayesha Hazarika.

Starmer will be attending the conference after joining the Labour Party’s first official leadership contest hustings, which is set to take place in Liverpool on Saturday from 11.30am.

The Fabian New Year Conference will be held on Saturday 18th January 2020 at Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ, from 9.30am to 5.30pm. View the full agenda here.