A high-profile conference for right-wing activists gathering in London this week has been funded by a host of American fossil fuel interests, major Trump donors, and billionaires who have bankrolled UK political parties, Unearthed and DeSmog have found. 

The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), running from 23-25 June at the Olympia in Kensington, has hosted appearances from British politicians including Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch alongside international stars of the libertarian and populist right. 

The event’s 4,000 attendees have also been able to hear speeches from leading figures in the Trump administration, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and senior State Department official Sarah Rogers. 

ARC was founded, and is backed by, the owners of GB News: hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall and the Dubai-based investment group Legatum. 

But a list of sponsors and donors for this year’s conference, obtained and analysed by Unearthed and DeSmog, show that it has also been given financial backing by major Conservative and Reform UK donor Lord Anthony Bamford, and Ben Delo, the billionaire crypto investor who donated £4 million to Farage’s party earlier this year. 

The 2026 event has also taken donations or sponsorship from powerful U.S. funders with close ties to the Trump administration.

They include Trump ally Anthony Pratt, an Australian-born billionaire who reportedly donated $14 million to the Trump-supporting Make America Great Again super PAC, and a further $1.1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund. After Trump’s first term, the president allegedly shared secrets about the U.S.’ nuclear submarines with Pratt, which led to the businessman being interviewed by federal prosecutors who were investigating Trump’s handling of classified material.

He is joined on the donors list by the American fossil fuel companies Howard Energy Partners (HEP) and Heyco Energy Group, both of which also helped to fund last year’s event. HEP is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in the US; its CEO Mike Howard, a Republican donor, was appointed to Trump’s National Petroleum Council in February this year.

Heyco, meanwhile, is a private oil and gas exploration firm based in Dallas, Texas. The company’s UK subsidiary Egdon Resources has held regular meetings with Reform’s Greater Lincolnshire Mayor Andrea Jenkyns about their shared desire to bring fracking for gas to the East Midlands region. 

Its CEO George Yates, who is set to attend this year’s summit, is a frequent donor to Republican candidates. 

Opposition to net zero and decarbonisation efforts have been central to ARC’s offering last year and this. In a speech to ARC on 23 June, Paul Marshall claimed that policies designed to reduce carbon emissions are based on “an ideology of fear and destruction, giving a new excuse for state interference”. 

Chris Wright added in his speech that the UK would be experiencing an “industrial renaissance” if it had embraced fracking for shale gas. 

As previously revealed by Unearthed and DeSmog, this year’s event is expecting a large contingent of attendees from anti-abortion and evangelical Christian right groups that originate in the US. A similar pattern is also seen in the event’s donors.

The list of donors includes the Focus on the Family, a “massive Evangelical Christian media empire” founded by the late radio host James Dobson. According to civil rights organisation the Southern Poverty Law Centre, Focus on the Family “demonizes LGBTQ+ people, claiming they are unnatural and un-Christian”. Other donors include Them Before Us, an American group that campaigns against same-sex marriage.

“Focus on the Family is honored to support the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, a global coalition committed to advancing the enduring principles and foundational truths that have enabled individuals, families and civilizations to flourish across generations,” Jim Daly, president of the group, told DeSmog and Unearthed.

They’re joined on ARC’s 36-strong donors list by Ben Delo, a billionaire crypto investor who donated £4 million to Reform UK earlier this year, and Lord Bamford, the billionaire owner of construction conglomerate JCB, which has donated millions to the Conservative Party in recent years, as well as £200,000 to Reform in November 2025.

Jolyon Maugham, executive director of the Good Law Project, said that Farage’s decision to “rub shoulders with big oil and groups opposing abortion” gives “a glimpse of his next manifesto”. 

Maugham added: “Reform UK claim they’re the voice of the people in Westminster, but if you want to know who they’re really speaking for, just follow the money.”

Donors to this year’s ARC conference also include Ken Griffin – a billionaire who runs the U.S. hedge fund Citadel. Griffin is worth more than $50 billion and has been described as a Republican “megadonor”. Griffin recently became embroiled in a spat with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who posted a viral video singling out the hedge fund manager’s luxury $238 million New York penthouse as a reason why taxes should be raised on high-value properties in the city. 

“Democracy is strongest when it is grounded in a broad commitment to free speech, open debate, and the serious exchange of ideas between differing ideological perspectives,” a spokesperson for Griffin said. 

A leaked attendees list for this year’s event, seen by Unearthed and DeSmog, revealed last week that the conference was set to host dozens of British MPs and peers, as well as politicians from the European far right, and American climate change deniers.

A version of this article was published by The Guardian.