{"id":695429,"date":"2026-07-16T20:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695429\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T20:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:23:07","slug":"liz-truss-assembles-host-of-rightwing-speakers-for-uks-first-cpac-event-in-london-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695429\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Truss assembles host of rightwing speakers for UK\u2019s first CPAC event in London | London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hard-right figures from around the world have gathered in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/london\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">London<\/a> for the inaugural British spin-off from America\u2019s influential CPAC gathering, which powered the rise of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The first CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) GB has been spearheaded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/liz-truss\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liz Truss<\/a>, the former Conservative leader who was the UK\u2019s prime minister for six weeks, as she seeks to rebuild her legacy and influence on the British right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Keynote speakers included the US rightwing influencer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/may\/21\/trump-shares-cpac-hungary-platform-racist-antisemite\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Posobiec<\/a>, who previously promoted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/02\/21\/nx-s1-5303473\/jack-posobiec-bessent-hegseth-europe-influencer\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fabricated \u201cPizzagate\u201d conspiracy theory<\/a> smearing prominent Democrats as paedophiles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe British people must rise up and take back their country,\u201d he said to applause from a few hundred attendees who had paid between \u00a3100 and \u00a310,000 for access to the three-day event.<\/p>\n<p>US rightwing influencer and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec at the CPAC GB conference. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Those due to speak in the next two days include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/nigel-farage\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigel Farage<\/a>, leader of the Reform UK party, and Pauline Hanson, the leader of Australia\u2019s anti-immigration One Nation party whose recent polling has gained her support among the populist right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">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 \u201cremigration\u201d and the \u201cgreat replacement\u201d conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThis is not diversity. This is replacement. The answer is remigration. Legal, orderly but firm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Earlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/suella-braverman\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Suella Braverman<\/a>, the Reform MP and former UK government minister, paid tribute to Truss and said it was vital for \u201cleaders on the right\u201d to come together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In a speech about white working-class boys, Bravermen said: \u201cInequality has been embedded in our society precisely because of attempts to create equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reform MP Suella Braverman praised Truss and called for leaders on the right to come together. Photograph: Carl Court\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cAttempts to be anti-racist have institutionalised anti-white racism. A whole swathe of the population is now excluded from opportunities by those preaching inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">While the case has been a catalyst for anger and violence, <a href=\"https:\/\/hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk\/publication-html\/inspection-of-race-disparity-in-police-criminal-justice-decision-making\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">research<\/a> has found ethnic minorities still face a higher risk of discrimination by British police while disparities facing ethnic minorities across other sectors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org.uk\/latest\/uk-failure-tackle-institutional-racism-root-cause-racist-violence-unfolding-streets\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have stagnated.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The event, which presents itself as a bridge uniting \u201ccommon sense politics\u201d, is the first British iteration after other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/cpac\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CPAC<\/a> spin-offs, which have taken place in Europe, and marks the latest attempt by Truss to reboot her political career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">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\u2019s economic legacy and said she wanted a period of silence from Truss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Asked if the event was a means of uniting the British right, Truss said: \u201cI describe it more as galvanising the right, because there are quite a lot of people who are allegedly on the right who wouldn\u2019t support the principles of liberty and sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>George Simion, the Romanian opposition leader, speaking at the CPAC GB event. Photograph: James Veysey\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cI think the problem on the British right is much bigger than any one party. It\u2019s that there isn\u2019t a broader movement,\u201d said Truss, who stood by her claims that her government was brought down by the \u201cdeep state\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe Bank of England were largely responsible for what happened in 2022. The Bank of England is the deep state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The so-called mini-budget of the Truss government, which proposed \u00a345bn 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Others speakers included Matt Goodwin, a Reform activist who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/feb\/27\/green-party-wins-gorton-and-denton-byelection-in-blow-to-keir-starmer\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">defeated in a byelection in the Gorton and Denton constituency<\/a> earlier this year. He used his speech to claim the \u201cIslamo-Green party\u201d used Muslim \u201cclan networks\u201d to \u201crig\u201d the Gorton and Denton byelection. Police <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/mar\/27\/no-evidence-criminality-gorton-denton-byelection-reform-uk-green-party\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have found no evidence of criminality <\/a>in the byelection, which the Green party won with more than 40% vote share compared with Goodwin\u2019s 28.7%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hard-right figures from around the world have gathered in London for the inaugural British spin-off from America\u2019s influential&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}