Liz Truss brought the US Conservative Political Action Conference to London and hosted it at the InterContinental hotel next to the O2. The event opened with about 500 seats laid out and fewer than 200 occupied.
At least 19 people were watching the live YouTube stream when the conference began. Matt Schlapp handled the introductions and said, "We were all doing God’s work" while also describing the UK as "a failing country with failing prime ministers."
Matt Schlapp at London CPAC
Truss’s decision to stage London CPAC at the InterContinental hotel put a US-style conference into a room that never filled. The gap between the seating plan and the attendance turned the event into a smaller, quieter version of the US Conservative Political Action Conference it was meant to echo.
The first main speaker was Toby Young, who introduced himself as the general secretary of the Free Speech Union. He told the audience, "I believe in climate change, I just don’t believe in it very much."
Toby Young at the conference
That line fitted the evening’s mix of conference branding and limited turnout. The room next to the O2 carried the CPAC label, but the numbers on the floor and online showed a modest gathering rather than the larger stage usually associated with the US event.
The setting leaves the clearest read for anyone tracking Truss’s political positioning: she is still attaching herself to CPAC, but the London version she hosted looked sparse from the start. Liz Truss launches first Cpac GB event in London
