The Global Story: British CPAC - Can MAGA politics be exported to the UK?

**Asma Khalid** (0:00)
Hey there, it's Asma Khalid, one of the hosts of The Global Story Podcast from the BBC. And as a bonus for your feed, we're bringing you one of our very best episodes from this past week. Now, every weekday on our show, we tell one story about where the world and America meet. And this week, the American right-wing movement landed in London with the first CPAC in Great Britain. The Conservative Political Action Conference started in the United States, and The Global Story decided to go visit the London version and report on the attempt to export MAGA to the UK.
And by the way, if you all do enjoy this episode, which I really hope you do, you can find more of us by searching for The Global Story wherever you get your podcasts. Now, on to the show.

**Matt Schlapp** (0:45)
Australia, we'll be in Japan. We'll be back in Argentina. We'll be back in Poland. We're gonna be in Germany.

**Tristan Redmond** (0:52)
The Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC. Think of it as a sort of political Coachella for the MAGA movement.

**Matt Schlapp** (1:00)
In Italy, obviously Great Britain, we haven't given up on Western Europe at all.

**Tristan Redmond** (1:06)
And it's expanding overseas. This is Matt Schlapp, Chair of CPAC, at its first event in the United Kingdom a few days ago.

**Matt Schlapp** (1:14)
What they are doing in your country to destroy it, they are doing in my country to destroy it. This is the fight of our lives.

**Tristan Redmond** (1:23)
Some VIP tickets for the London event were priced at more than $13,000.
Prices that many people in the UK would ball cap. And there was an American style feel to the event. Prayers to open the meeting, popular outright podcasters and anti-abortion speakers flown in from the US. The tagline of the event was Save Britain, Save the West. From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in London. And today on The Global Story, how much appeal does the MAGA movement have outside the United States? We've been to CPAC Great Britain to find out.
And I'm very pleased to say that today we are joined by our very own Hannah Moore, producer on The Global Story. And Hannah, you have been at CPAC UK.

**Hannah Moore** (2:19)
Yeah, the Conservative Political Action Conference, the first one of its kind to be held in Great Britain. I spent several days in a hot and sweaty conference room, and I'm here to hopefully enlighten you about what it was all about.

**Tristan Redmond** (2:32)
Well, we're going to get on to all of that, Hannah, and all the people that you've met along the way there. But what actually is CPAC? Where does it come from? What's it supposed to do?

**Hannah Moore** (2:41)
Okay, so the Conservative Political Action Conference was founded in 1974 Ronald Reagan was one of the first speakers.
And for the first few years, CPAC was this kind of grassroots event, which was about exchanging conservative ideas. So it's about bringing people together from across the movement.
And it's become a barometer of who's up and who's down in the Republican Party. CPAC has also expanded to other countries. It's been in Hungary, Poland, Brazil. And you get these big right-wing figures, like Viktor Orban, the former Prime Minister of Hungary.
Javier Millet, the president of Argentina. He spoke at CPAC in the US. You remember the scene of him handing the chainsaw to Elon Musk and saying, you know, we're going to slash state spending.

**Javier Milei** (3:33)
This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw.

**Hannah Moore** (3:39)
So you get these kind of like set piece, big speeches from big figures across the right. And this is the first time that sort of brand is coming to the UK.

**Tristan Redmond** (3:52)
Well, the pictures that I've seen of CPAC in the United States are always of kind of large scale, glitzy, flashy affairs. When you think of political events in the UK, it's more sort of urns of tea, biscuits, and maybe sort of evening receptions with slightly warm white wine.

**Hannah Moore** (4:14)
Sounds good to me.

**Tristan Redmond** (4:15)
How does the American style political event transpose to the UK format?

**Hannah Moore** (4:20)
So CPAC Great Britain took place at the Intercontinental Hotel near the O2.
The O2 is one of the biggest music venues in the UK. I was there a few weeks ago watching Robin. Very different crowd for that of CPAC Great Britain.

**Tristan Redmond** (4:36)
I'm sure.

**Hannah Moore** (4:37)
Far fewer short leather shorts. And this hotel is kind of grand. It has a big view looking over the city of London. So the financial district, that district of power.