In the depths of the Palace of Westminster, beneath chandeliers and in front of an imposing portrait of the Duke of Wellington, Luke Wright stepped in front of a committee table. But unlike the stream of policy meetings and party posturing usually heard in Committee Room 8, Wright was here not for politics, but poetry.

On Wednesday night, the performance poet was invited by Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, to perform his acclaimed work What I Learned From Johnny Bevan, in the presence of any MP who was willing to turn up. In the end, only one did.

Wright’s piece, partly inspired by Brideshead Revisited, is told through the eyes of a disenchanted music journalist, and encompasses the fascination with the working class in the 90s, the moment that Britain held its breath for New Labour, and the subsequent feeling of political betrayal.

The work – part theatre, part spoken word – has won Wright plaudits since he first performed it at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, winning him the Fringe First award for new writing. It was transferred to the Soho Theatre in March and will go on tour this summer. But it was the political message of the piece - the themes of political disenchantment, betrayal by Tony Blair, poverty, gentrification and the plight of the working class – that convinced Lewis that Wright’s politically charged words needed to be performed in parliament itself.

“When I saw him perform this at the Soho Theatre, I was engrossed,” said Lewis. “I could see so many political messages and issues and ideas in Luke’s words about politics in the 1990s and 2000s that are still confronting the Labour party to this day.

“Whether it’s the death throes of New Labour, the legacy of Tony Blair, or the disconnect from the white working class, it asks really important questions – questions that I think other politicians and people in my party should be asking.”

He added: “In terms of a critique of New Labour, I really think there are things in here that MPs and the Labour party can learn from – and where better to bring that than into the heart of power when it is seething with the changes taking place in the Labour party.”

Lewis said that while it was almost unheard of to stage cultural events in Westminster committee rooms, he hoped this would prompt other MPs to do the same.

“This is the people’s parliament but at the moment there does seem to be a very big disconnect between Westminster politics – the bubble – and people out there,” Lewis added. “And if artists, who are communicators first and foremost, can come into this place and speak to us – speak unto power, so to speak – and then take those experiences back out into the community, it shows this is not just a place where we preach to them.”

He admitted it had been a tough sell to try and convince fellow MPs, both from Labour and the SNP, as well as people from the Lords, to come and watch. In the end, as Wright took to the floor to perform, only one other MP, Labour’s Liz McInnes, was in the audience.

“I wish there were more of them here,” said Lewis after the show. “People are busy but I don’t think that’s an excuse.”

But even so, the political bite of Wright’s piece felt heightened by the setting, and one part of the work – his poem Tea With The Tories, which features such lines as “Shoes off Ken, hate to ask/ but you’ve trampled in some working class” – was performed with particular relish. It also prompted a heated discussion about Labour’s failure to be the voice of the working class today.

Wright said: “This isn’t just coming in and rubbing shoulders with politicians: it’s about an actual exchange, and so that’s why I wanted to come. This is democracy. It’s all set to intimidate you, this place, but you don’t have to let it, and I thought it would be brilliant, though I would have liked some more Labour people to come see it.”

Despite its politically bold agenda, Wright said he had not been nervous about bringing What I Learned From Johnny Bevan to Westminster.

He said: “There’s a line at the end of the show which says: ‘They were supposed to change that. They refused.’ It was nice to be able to say that in this building. People of my generation, we came of age politically then marched against the Iraq war and saw what little difference that made. I think that led to a lot of disillusionment and it felt really like things would never change.”

Speaking after the show, McInnes called it “an incredible performance”.

“There were so many parts of it I related to,” she said. “We do have work to do as politicians. There are a lot of people who feel left out, there is a vacuum – and so I would have loved it if a few more MPs had come down to listen. It’s shame: it would have been so good if there had been a few Tory MPs sitting here.”