Politicians and leading figures from the political right will be in attendance at a summit in London next week.
Around 4,000 people from more than 85 countries are expected to attend the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) conference at the Olympia exhibition centre.
Three days of speeches and discussions will take place between June 23 and 25, in a convention that has been dubbed the “anti-woke Davos.”
What is the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, and who will be attending?
What is The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship?
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) is an international network for right-wing activists and thought leaders that aims to “re-lay the foundations of our civilisation”.
Based in the UK and founded in 2023, Arc is run by Conservative peer Philippa Stroud - prominent Canadian conservative pundit Jordan Peterson was also a co-founder.
The network has a number of multi-millionaire backers, including hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall, a co-owner of GB News and the Dubai-based investment fund Legatum.
In his speech at the event last year, Marshall claimed that countries were “being infected by an ideological zeal” that had led them to develop net zero plans.
He said economic prosperity was being sacrificed “for the sake of making some fractional changes to the level of CO2 in the atmosphere”.
The conference has received financial backing in the past from a number of American fossil fuel interests and major Trump donors, as well as from billionaire Reform donor Ben Delo.
Who is attending?
A host of British MPs and peers will attend the conference - as will politicians from the European right and figures from Donald Trump’s administration.
Visitors will be charged up to £1,500 a ticket for three days of networking and talks from figures of the libertarian and populist right.
Speakers will include Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, as well as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Other speakers include Chris Wright, Donald Trump’s energy secretary and Bill Anderson, chief executive of the German pesticides giant Bayer.
Sarah Rogers, a senior State Department official who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s attempts to promote right-wing parties abroad, will also speak.
Conservative peer and Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, Conservative MP and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey and Reform MPs Sarah Pochin and Andrew Rosindell are among the 40 parliamentarians reportedly on the guest list.
Among the government attendees will be Samuel Samson, a US state department official who has challenged Britain’s communications regulator over the impact on freedom of expression created by online safety laws.
Jon Morgan, a senior official in the office of US vice-president JD Vance, and Rodney Mims Cook Jr, the overseer of the president’s controversial White House ballroom extension, will also be there.
From Europe, there will be members from various right-wing parties.
Members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, Vlaams Belang from Belgium, Vox from Spain and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom are all on the guest list.
There will be a strong presence from US anti-abortion activists, with more than a dozen representatives of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, expected to be in attendance.
Two high-profile figures from Eton college will be there too - Tom Arbuthnott, the school’s deputy head (partnerships), and Luke Martin, a theology master.
Wealthy donors and sponsors will be attending, with corporate attendees from Johnson & Johnson, Palantir, BP, Philip Morris International, Rio Tinto, Airbus, Sanofi, RedBird Capital and DP World expected.
What have people said?
An Arc spokesperson has said that its role was to bring together leaders across business, culture, politics, and technology to discuss how to “recover civilisational foundations”.
They told the Guardian: “When we launched in 2023, it was tantamount to heresy to challenge net zero – now everyone from Bill Gates and Tony Blair to leaders across the right have made the point that abundant, reliable, cheap energy is the base layer of modern civilisation.
“At the same time, no one was talking about demographic decline as a major risk for the west, now it is firmly on the radar.”
They added: “Our ambition has always been to bring together an extraordinary group of leaders from around the world, establishing an international network of builders committed to the flourishing of our nations.
“We will see this ambition come to life at our third annual conference in London and around the world.”
Georgie Laming, from the campaign group Hope Not Hate, claimed Arc was “one of the biggest radical right events in the UK and a networking opportunity for the global right and far right”.
She added: “It’s very worrying to see mainstream UK politicians rubbing shoulders with US anti-abortion activists, European far right figures and members of the Trump administration who want to bring culture wars to the UK.”
Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said: “The Arc gathering - and the fact that its attendees include politicians from both the outer fringes and the conventional parts of what it seems reasonable to call the right-wing international - is a symptom of the collapse of what used to be a heavily policed border between the far and the centre-right.
“Mainstream conservatives seem to have given up on the idea that they can see off the insurgents on their flank, preferring that old adage, ‘If you can’t beat them join them’ - if not institutionally via formal pacts or mergers then ideologically.”
