Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has announced that he will be speaking at CPAC GB in July – the pro-Trump conference brought to the UK by disgraced former prime minister Liz Truss.
Reform sources speaking to The Guardian previously suggested that Farage would be “steering well clear” of the event, following Truss’ involvement.
However, over the weekend, Farage announced that he would be the “keynote” speaker at the event, which is also set to feature fellow Reform politician Matthew Goodwin, who lost the Gorton and Denton by-election in February.
“Farage likes to pretend he’s on the side of the ordinary working man, but he’s really a 1980s yuppie, with out of date Thatcherite ideas,” said Nick Dearden, director of the campaign group Global Justice.
“Farage said he wouldn’t turn up to CPAC GB, Liz Truss’ embarrassing attempt at a comeback, but he just couldn’t stay away because this is where he belongs – with the grifters of recently failed governments. No one should be in any doubt – Farage is part of Britain’s out of touch elite and offers no solutions to the problems Britain faces today.”
Truss, who was prime minister for 49 days in late 2022, was forced to resign after announcing £45 billion worth unfunded tax cuts and spending hikes – causing an economic shock. Experts have warned that Farage’s agenda, which echoes Truss’ economic policies, would cause similar financial repercussions.
Farage and Truss will be joined by Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Conservative MP who was a senior minister under Truss and is employed by GB News, which employs Farage as a presenter. The Guardian also previously reported that Rees-Mogg had “no interest in making an appearance” at CPAC GB.
Truss and Farage share approaches to climate change. The Reform leader has claimed it’s “nuts” for CO2 to be considered a pollutant, while Truss has called on the UK, EU and U.S. to drop their landmark climate policies.
The American Conservative Union has hosted annual Conservative Political Action Conferences in the U.S. since 1974, and has been closely linked to Trump and MAGA since Trump’s first rise to the presidency in 2016. Farage has been a regular feature of CPACs in recent years.
Other speakers at CPAC GB include Tory peer Toby Young, Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson – who is a director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a climate science denial group, Talk TV host and former Farage advisor Alexandra Phillips, the radical right-wing YouTube hosts Mike Graham and Dan Wootton, Sun journalist Harry Cole, and Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for calling for people to “set fire” to hotels housing asylum seekers.
