The National Conservatism conference has been shut down by local authorities in Brussels, who said the “far right” was not welcome.
Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman were among several people due to speak at the conference before Belgian authorities issued the ban.
Emir Kir, the mayor of Brussels district Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, said he decided to halt the conference to “guarantee public safety”.
“In Etterbeek, in Brussels City and in Saint-Josse, the far right is not welcome,” he said.
Police reportedly entered the venue while Mr Farage addressed the crowd before everyone was ordered to leave.
Organisers had already struggled to find a venue for their event due to public pressure.
In the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was urged to block the former home secretary Ms Braverman’s attendance. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth told the PM to stop her “giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals”.
So why are people opposed to this controversial movement? This is all you need to know.
What is National Conservatism?
The movement began after the 2016 EU referendum and grew through the landslide Tory election victory in 2019.
The group defines itself on its website as “a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing.”
It has attracted the attention of darlings of the right of the Tory Party, such as Ms Braverman, and has positioned itself as the voice of traditional British values. Despite the pro-UK stance, National Conservatism was the offshoot of a right-wing US think tank. It sees the movement as having the potential to reshape the narrative for the Conservative Party in the same way the Tea Party did once for the Republicans.
A backer of the cause is rising Conservative Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, who opened the conference. She said Brexit was an “instruction from the public that they expect us to govern with their interests, their values in mind. Not the values of the intelligentsia – the globalised elite whose loyalties are to everyone and no one”.
What are the values of National Conservatism?
The movement has set out 10 principles, each one of which is explained on its website.
1. National Independence
2. Rejection of Imperialism and Globalism
3. National Government
4. God and Public Religion
5. The Rule of Law
6. Free Enterprise
7. Public Research
8. Family and Children
9. Immigration
10. Race
“We are citizens of Western nations who have watched with alarm as the traditional beliefs, institutions, and liberties underpinning life in the countries we love have been progressively undermined and overthrown,” the group adds.
However, some of what was said at the conference was controversial. Hungarian-Canadian sociologist Frank Furedi inflamed LGBT groups by saying: “In Brussels, you no longer have LGBTQ+, they’re inventing a new letter to add to the [acronym] every single day.”
Journalist Douglas K Murray received a backlash online for saying: “I don’t see why no one should be allowed to love their country because the Germans mucked up twice in a century.”
What could National Conservatism mean for the Tory Party?
Right-wing populism grew in the mid-2010s. Support for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) led to Brexit in the UK and former US president Donald Trump campaigned on pro-conservative values. Meanwhile, far-right politician Viktor Orbán was elected Hungarian prime minister.
The Tories have enacted Brexit but the far right’s influence has been questionable. Mr Sunak is a moderate within the party being backed up in Cabinet by Ms Braverman and right-leaning Kemi Badenoch as business secretary. Lee Anderson’s appointment as deputy chairman of the party represents evidence of “red wall” Tories, elected in former northern Labour heartlands, coming to the fore.
National Conservatives will argue the 2019 election result could give the movement a mandate to show the future the party should be taking. But, with the British population showing increasingly liberal values on social issues and the failure of Liz Truss’s low tax and low regulation premiership, it might not be a central campaign theme ahead of the next election in 2024.
Labour is polling at 44 per cent, ahead of the Conservative Party’s 22 per cent, according to Politico.
