Leading figures from Eton college are set to attend the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) summit in London, a rightwing conference dubbed an 'anti-woke' Davos. The event, co-founded by Jordan Peterson, will bring together global populist-right figures, US state officials, and Eton teachers.
Eton's Presence at Arc
Tom Arbuthnott, Eton's deputy head (partnerships), and Luke Martin, a theology master at the school, are among the expected attendees. Martin previously resigned from a role in 2020 in protest at the dismissal of another teacher, criticizing the promotion of 'so-called progressive ideology' at the school. He remains a teacher at Eton as master of divinity.
The summit, held at London's Olympia exhibition centre, will host 4,000 people from over 85 countries for three days of speeches and discussions.
Key Political Figures
Reform UK MPs Sarah Pochin and Andrew Rosindell will attend, along with a plethora of Reform advisers and backroom staff. Ben Delo, a British crypto billionaire who has donated £4m to Nigel Farage's party, is also expected.
Speakers include Sarah B Rogers, US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, who has become the public face of the Trump administration's hostility to European liberal democracies. She has attacked policies on hate speech and immigration by US allies and promoted far-right parties. Other US government attendees include Samuel Samson, a state department official who challenged Britain's communications regulator over online safety laws, and Jon Morgan, a senior official in the office of Vice-President JD Vance.
A strong US anti-abortion presence includes over a dozen representatives of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade. Rodney Mims Cook Jr, chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts and overseer of Trump's White House ballroom extension, is also expected.
Corporate and Evangelical Influence
Christian evangelical political thinking is a guiding theme, alongside hostility to net zero and climate skepticism. European far-right attendees include members of Germany's AfD, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, Spain's Vox, and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is once again a keynote speaker, vying with Farage to be the torchbearer for conservatism. At least 40 UK MPs are attending, while Reform attendees include head of the party's Christian Fellowship and James Orr, a senior advisor to Farage.
Corporate attendees include Johnson & Johnson, Palantir, BP, Philip Morris International, Rio Tinto, Airbus, Sanofi, RedBird Capital, and DP World. Main funders include Paul Marshall, co-owner of GB News, and the Dubai-based investment fund Legatum.
An Arc spokesperson said the summit aims to bring together leaders to discuss how to 'recover civilisational foundations', noting that challenging net zero was once heresy but is now mainstream. However, MSI Reproductive Choices expressed concerns about importing US-style culture-war politics into the UK.
Professor Tim Bale of Queen Mary University of London said the gathering is a symptom of the collapse of the border between far-right and centre-right, with mainstream conservatives adopting the adage 'If you can't beat them, join them'.
