James Orr, an ally of Nigel Farage and JD Vance, accused the UK of adopting a “naive and dangerous” approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at an event organised by an oil-funded think tank.
Speaking at a festival hosted by Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Esztergom, Hungary last week, Orr accused politicians of failing to “reflect upon this crisis, this problem, this conflict, on its own terms”.
He claimed they have a “peculiar psychological condition” – which he labelled “Ukraine brain” – that means they are only able to understand the Russia-Ukraine war “through the lens” of the Second World War.
“The only way to understand Vladimir Putin is to think of him as Adolf Hitler, the only way you can understand Volodymyr Zelensky is as Winston Churchill,” he claimed – suggesting this approach is “naive and dangerous”.
By contrast, Orr praised Hungary’s approach to the war, which has seen the country systematically block and delay EU military aid packages, and sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
“I salute the Hungarian approach to this from the very beginning. It’s taken exceptional courage, diplomatic skill and caution and prescience to navigate this issue over the last three years,” he said.
A University of Cambridge academic, Orr is a senior figure at the Centre for a Better Britain, a new think tank funded by friends of Farage that will produce policies for a potential Reform UK government. The Reform leader, who used to appear regularly on state broadcaster Russia Today, has previously said that Putin is the world leader that he most admires, though he has also called him a “bad man”.
Speaking on BBC Politics Live in May, Orr claimed that “a lot more people have got into trouble for free speech offences in the UK than in Putin’s Russia” – a claim not supported by evidence.
Orr is a close friend of Vance, and has been described as the vice president’s “philosopher king”. Vance has also been critical of the West’s level of support for Ukraine, and clashed with President Zelenskyy in the White House in February.
MCC is funded by the Hungarian state largely via shares in the country’s national oil company MOL, and is seen as an instrument of Viktor Orbán’s autocratic regime. MOL, which sponsored the main stage at MCC’s festival, has continued to refine Russian oil throughout the Ukraine war – announcing in March that it would replace one-third of its imports from the country.
MCC’s festival also played host to a number of other radical right-wing figures, including tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, disgraced Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings, and Viktor Orbán himself.
“The MCC festival, with its line-up of far-right propagandists, is a disturbing example of how the Orbán regime is working to promote its reactionary ideology, in Hungary and internationally,” said Oliver Hoedeman, a researcher and campaigner at the Brussels-based transparency watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory.
“Behind the hip image, the festival is organised by a think tank that attacks climate policy, civil society and gender rights and which aims to dismantle the EU as part of its far right nationalist agenda.”
A spokesperson for Centre for a Better Britain said that Orr was speaking at MCC’s event in a private capacity.
MCC declined to comment on the record.
Reform did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.
The Hungarian Model
Orr lauded Orbán’s government during the festival – describing it as a “counterexample to the ideology in my own country that rejects national pride and heritage”.
This anti-British attitude was reflected by Cummings, who said that the UK’s democratic institutions were “crumbling” and have “lost public trust”.
A former advisor to the ex-Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson and a key architect of the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, Cummings has held meetings with Farage in recent months.
Orbán’s government has severely restricted political, media, and judicial freedoms in Hungary since he returned to power in 2010, and has declared plans to “occupy” Brussels in order to shape its policies on migration, climate, and gender.
It was reported by The Times in June that Reform officials had visited Hungary and sought advice from aides to Orbán about welfare policy.
However, Orbán and his party Fidesz are facing an uphill battle to win the next Hungarian election in 2026, having fallen behind the opposition Tisza party in the polls late last year.
Centre for a Better Britain
The Centre for a Better Britain, which is attempting to raise £25 million, will “support Reform with policy development, briefing and rebuttal,” according to plans seen by the Financial Times.
The group was founded by Mark Thompson, an investor with interests in metals, fossil fuels, and renewable energy, and his business associate David Lilley, a senior metals trader and former Conservative donor who has given £200,000 to Reform.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Orr said that Thompson and Lilley were “friends of Nigel from the late ‘80s, early ‘90s,” when Farage worked as a metals trader. “They’ve always been fellow travellers with him,” he added – “they went boozing with him when they were in the commodities business”.
In the interview, Orr expressed admiration for the Heritage Foundation – the U.S. group that drafted the radical and influential ‘Project 2025’ blueprint for Donald Trump’s second term.
“Kevin Roberts [the group’s president] has built up the Heritage Foundation to the point where I think it’s getting about $100 million a year in income,” he said. “And what it can do is it can set up a Project 2025, and it can come up with an enormous policy shop window.
“It can also then help to staff an entire administration with hundreds and hundreds of bright young things”.
The Heritage Foundation has increasingly been interfering in European politics – with the help of MCC. In March, the U.S. group convened a meeting between MCC and the Polish conservative lobby group Ordo Iuris in Washington D.C. to discuss how to dismantle the current structures of the EU.
Roberts has himself praised Orbán, saying the Hungarian prime minister “should be celebrated”.
Climate Denial
Climate science deniers were also on the roster at the MCC festival, including U.S. author Michael Shellenberger, who claimed that “climate alarmism has gone so far, it’s making people afraid to have children.”
According to MCC’s X account, Shellenberger added that “contrary to media claims, natural disasters are declining”. The UN has stated that climate related disasters have increased by more than 80 percent over the past four decades.
In an interview after his session, Shellenberger also said that the European Commission was part of a “censorship industrial complex” and that “we should all thank Elon Musk for liberating” the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
MCC previously hosted Shellenberger for launch of the Hungarian translation of his book “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All,” published by MCC Press.
The festival also featured Csaba Gondola, Hungary’s climate secretary. At an event in September 2024 hosted by the Hungarian Danube Institute and the Heritage Foundation, Gondola said that climate action was a “religion”.
He added that climate change is a “matter of science”, but claimed that “you can, of course, argue about how much individuals are contributing… or if it’s a natural phenomenon.”
Far-Right Presence
Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, attended the MCC festival, saying she found it, “very nice, very interesting.”
The AfD was classified by German domestic intelligence services as a “proven far-right extremist entity” for continuing to use xenophobic language which contravenes Germany’s constitution, shortly after achieving its best-ever result in federal elections earlier this year.
During the festival, Weidel attended a session hosted by MCC’s German-Hungarian Institute in which German MP Saskia Ludwig, from the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said that her party would be open to working with the AfD. The pair could later be seen talking, as reported by the German newspaper Taz.
Former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who formed a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party of Austria following his election in 2017, also spoke at the festival.
Corporate Sponsors
The festival’s flagship events were held on the MOL Main Stage, named after the Hungarian national oil company.
MCC held at least €1.1 billion in assets in 2022 after Orbán’s government handed it a 10 percent stake in MOL.
Another stage, the Richter Stage, was named after the pharmaceutical giant Gedeon Richter. MCC also holds a 10 percent stake in Gedeon Richter thanks to Orbán’s regime.
Other stages took their names from sponsors of MCC Feszt: the Japanese car maker Suzuki, the German car parts manufacturer Kirchhoff Automotive, and the Hungarian MBH Bank. DM, the German drug store giant, was also listed online as a sponsor of the festival.
Hoedeman said that it was “deeply worrying” that these companies chose to sponsor an event “that clearly promotes authoritarian politics”.
DM told DeSmog that the use of its branding on the festival’s website “was not coordinated with us and was previously unknown to us”. The firm said that it was only aware of its promotional “Beauty Bus” visiting the festival.
They added: “Within the DM Austria and Associated Countries group, we follow the principle of not engaging in partnerships or sponsorships in a party-political context. It is possible that these guidelines were not fully observed in the collaboration with the external agency that planned the beauty tour. We are currently reviewing the situation and will adjust our activities if necessary.”
Suzuki, Kirchhoff Automotive, and MHB were approached for comment.
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