Hard-right figures from around the world have gathered in London for the inaugural British spin-off from America’s influential CPAC gathering, which powered the rise of Donald Trump.
The first CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) GB has been spearheaded by Liz Truss, the former Conservative leader who was the UK’s prime minister for six weeks, as she seeks to rebuild her legacy and influence on the British right.
Keynote speakers included the US rightwing influencer Jack Posobiec, who previously promoted the fabricated “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory smearing prominent Democrats as paedophiles.
“The British people must rise up and take back their country,” he said to applause from a few hundred attendees who had paid between £100 and £10,000 for access to the three-day event.
Sponsors include the John Birch Society, the hard-right US advocacy group, AI company Alpha Compute and companies involved in Bitcoin, which will be a major theme on Friday.
Those due to speak in the next two days include Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, and Pauline Hanson, the leader of Australia’s anti-immigration One Nation party whose recent polling has gained her support among the populist right.
Other speakers on Thursday included George Simion, a pro-Trump ultranationalist who was narrowly defeated in presidential elections last year. He used a speech to reference far-right slogans such as “remigration” and the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
“This is not diversity. This is replacement. The answer is remigration. Legal, orderly but firm,” he said.
Earlier, Suella Braverman, the Reform MP and former UK government minister, paid tribute to Truss and said it was vital for “leaders on the right” to come together.
In a speech about white working-class boys, Bravermen said: “Inequality has been embedded in our society precisely because of attempts to create equality.”
“Attempts to be anti-racist have institutionalised anti-white racism. A whole swathe of the population is now excluded from opportunities by those preaching inclusion.”
The claims come as politicians on the hard right have attempted to exploit cases in the UK such as the death of Henry Nowak, a white student who died after being stabbed by a man who falsely claimed to police that the student had racially abused him.
While the case has been a catalyst for anger and violence, research has found ethnic minorities still face a higher risk of discrimination by British police while disparities facing ethnic minorities across other sectors have stagnated.
The event, which presents itself as a bridge uniting “common sense politics”, is the first British iteration after other CPAC spin-offs, which have taken place in Europe, and marks the latest attempt by Truss to reboot her political career.
The former prime minister, whose short-lived record in government has been used by the Labour party as a means to attack the opposition, confirmed to the Guardian that she remained a member of the Conservative party.
While Farage will speak on Friday, one glaring absence at the event in London is the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, who has tried to distance herself from her predecessor’s economic legacy and said she wanted a period of silence from Truss.
Asked if the event was a means of uniting the British right, Truss said: “I describe it more as galvanising the right, because there are quite a lot of people who are allegedly on the right who wouldn’t support the principles of liberty and sovereignty.”
While others at the conference praised Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the British far right right activist known as Tommy Robinson, Truss declined to say whether he would be welcome at the event in future, or whether she would join Reform.
“I think the problem on the British right is much bigger than any one party. It’s that there isn’t a broader movement,” said Truss, who stood by her claims that her government was brought down by the “deep state”.
“The Bank of England were largely responsible for what happened in 2022. The Bank of England is the deep state.”
The so-called mini-budget of the Truss government, which proposed £45bn in unfunded tax cuts, has been widely regarded by economists as having played a key role in putting UK economic stability at risk and has been disowned by her party.
Others speakers included Matt Goodwin, a Reform activist who was defeated in a byelection in the Gorton and Denton constituency earlier this year. He used his speech to claim the “Islamo-Green party” used Muslim “clan networks” to “rig” the Gorton and Denton byelection. Police have found no evidence of criminality in the byelection, which the Green party won with more than 40% vote share compared with Goodwin’s 28.7%.
