London: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been backed by British right-wing populist Nigel Farage after they met at a closed-door political gathering also attended by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Farage, who is leading the polls with his Reform UK party, heaped praise on Hanson for her staying power in politics, but he took issue with her decision to sit down for a podcast with far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Hanson and Rinehart arrived in London to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where the One Nation leader was given a front-row seat to hear Farage address the summit on Friday afternoon (about 1.30am on Saturday AEST).
Rinehart joined the gathering, wearing a pink cowboy hat, and met the Reform UK leader backstage to show her support for his plan to slash migration and stop asylum seeker boats.
After a political storm in Australia over their luxury holiday at a fashion show in Italy in recent days, Hanson and Rinehart avoided the media by joining VIP speakers in a closed-off area guarded by security staff.
Speaking to this masthead outside the event, Farage criticised the Liberal Party and expressed support for Hanson instead.
“She’s quite remarkable – she never goes away, she just keeps on going,” he said.
“She’s very clever on social media and she got it years ago, in a way that the Liberal Party of Australia didn’t. And I think that slow build has been really, really impressive.
“The Australian Liberal Party has just lost its way completely.”
Farage sent a warning, however, over Hanson’s one-hour podcast with Robinson, who is intensely controversial because of his convictions for assault and his history of abrasive commentary against Muslims.
“It wouldn’t have been my choice,” Farage said.
Hanson’s opponents in Australia have sharply criticised her decision to talk to Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and there have been signs of dissent within One Nation over how the podcast came about.
Hanson’s top adviser, James Ashby, has argued the meeting with Robinson was a suggestion from the Seven Network, which was preparing a report on Hanson’s UK visit, but the TV network rejected this version of events.
Ashby joined Hanson at CPAC in the front row to hear Farage, alongside Mercedes Schlapp, a speaker at the London conference and a director of communications at the White House during Donald Trump’s first term as US president.
Hanson also met Matt Schlapp, the husband of Mercedes and the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which runs the CPAC events.
Farage said his policy plan drew on Australia’s experience in stopping asylum seeker boats under former prime minister Tony Abbott, and he said a Reform government could do the same in the English Channel.
The key, he said, would be to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to stop challenges to tougher asylum seeker rules.
Hanson was due to give the main address at a dinner on Friday night (early on Saturday AEST) at a five-star hotel near the O2 arena east of London on the Thames River.
She sat with CPAC chair and former British prime minister Liz Truss at the top table at the dinner, according to a source inside the room, but the event was closed to the press and there was no broadcast of her speech.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.