More than 200 people from Brighton and Hove turned out to hear the new Labour leader Ed Miliband and ask him questions.
He was introduced to the audience at Hove Town Hall by Councillor Gill Mitchell, the Labour group leader on Brighton and Hove City Council.
His question and answer session was one of several that Mr Miliband is holding as part of his “Fresh Ideas” tour.
The aim, he said, was to understand what voters want as part of a comprehensive policy review.
He said that Labour had lost touch with the public and needed new policy ideas if it was to win back seats like Hove, Brighton Pavilion and Brighton Kemptown.
Labour held all three seats before the general election in May last year but the Conservatives won two of the constituencies and the Green Party triumphed in the other.
Mr Miliband was buoyed by his party’s victory in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election the day before he came to Hove (Thursday 13 January).
But he said that he wasn’t going to gloat over the result which was just the first step to Labour winning back voters’ trust.
He hoped to persuade people that his party had learnt from the mistakes of the past and was now listening.
Fewer than a hundred people were listening to Mr Miliband online though as the event was broadcast live on his Fresh Ideas website.
As just 96 people logged on, Conservative MP Gavin Barwell mocked the Labour leader, whose brother David wants to make television programmes.
Mr Barwell, the MP for Croydon Central, said: “Let’s hope his brother’s TV career goes a bit better.”
How about crawl away and hid in a corner until the mess that liebour caused has been sorted out.
Then come back, contrite, with fresh ideas for a small efficient and humble government..