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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, rubbing shoulders with top politicians and business figures from around the world despite criticising the conference in the past.
The populist politician, who is leading in UK opinion polls, is due to appear at the event, according to people familiar with the matter, even though he previously said his party would “reject the influence” of the WEF.
Other attendees at the event in the mountain resort are expected to include US President Donald Trump and UK chancellor Rachel Reeves, as well as Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan and Ana Botín of Santander.
In 2024 Farage said: “Reform UK will reject the influence of the World Economic Forum and cancel Britain’s membership of it.”
The UK is not a formal member of the WEF, which runs between January 19 and January 23 this year with the theme of “A Spirit of Dialogue”.
Farage also in 2023 described Sir Keir Starmer, then leader of the Labour opposition, as a “full-on globalist, hanging out with his mates at the WEF”.
In 2020, he released a video in which he discussed the WEF conference and said: “What’s happened to us over the course of the last 50 years is we’ve decided nation states don’t matter, we’ve decided national democracy doesn’t matter, because we can decide all of this in ski resorts in Switzerland. Isn’t it wonderful?
“The national state, based on democratic lines, is much better than people deciding our futures in Swiss ski resorts on their annual jaunt to Davos.”
Farage’s decision to attend the event comes as he seeks to forge ties with influential foreign leaders and bolster his international image ahead of the next election, which must take place by summer 2029.
In December, he visited Abu Dhabi and held meetings with senior United Arab Emirates officials.
Trump attended Davos in 2018 and gave a speech in which he expounded the “America First” agenda that defined his first term.
He did not attend in person last year, giving a video address instead, but he is expected to attend the event in the eastern Alps this year.
Other confirmed speakers include Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Deborah Prentice, vice-chancellor of Cambridge university.