David Cameron is to attend a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg Group tonight - but will not say who he meets.
The Prime Minister will take part in a debate on the global economy with an unknown group of ministers, business leaders and academics from around the world.
But his attendance at the heavily-guarded event is certain to spark controversy after Mr Cameron once promised to lead the 'most open and transparent government in the world'.
Secret: David Cameron, pictured in Scotland today, is to attend the Bilderberg Group conference tonight, but Downing Street said it was a private meeting and will not say who he meets
Controversy: Protesters gathered to at vehicles arriving at the conference yesterday in protest at its secretive nature
Famous for being shrouded in secrecy, the Bilderberg conference is taking place in Britain for the first time since 1998 and conspiracy theorists believe this is where leaders plot world domination.
The huge police operation drafted in to monitor the four-day event in Watford, which has previously attracted mass demonstrations, could cost the British taxpayer as much as £2million or more, it has been claimed.
Mr Cameron is not due to give a speech but will take part in a discussion about 'domestic and global economic issues'.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'It is a private meeting. He has been invited as head of the government here.
'My understanding is that is is usual for the Bilderberg Group to invite the head of the government of the country in which it is meeting.
'He feels it is an opportunity to discuss economic issues with senior ministers, business people and academics.'
'Outrageous': The huge police operation drafted in to monitor the four-day event, which has previously attracted mass demonstrations, could cost the British taxpayer as much as £2million or more, it has been claimed
On guard: Police patrol the grounds of The Grove hotel which is hosting the annual Bilderberg conference
Security: A police helicopter hovers over the The Grove hotel in Hertfordshire, with the taxpayer paying for most of the bill
The spokesman said he thought it was the first time Mr Cameron had joined a meeting of the shadowy group. But as Tory leader he attended in 2008.
The Prime Minister has made great play of his commitment to be more open about who he meets.
In 2010 he promised: 'We want to be the most open and transparent government in the world.'
Downing Street was forced to deny that Mr Cameron's decision to attend this evening ran counter to his pledge.
The spokesman added: 'The Prime Minister has always been clear about the importance of transparency, which is why this Government has taken a number of steps in terms of publishing more data, more information and making details of meetings available.
'We publish far more information on meetings than previous governments. The Prime Minister regularly has meetings with key ministers from other countries and with business people and others as part of his job.
'That doesn't mean that he is not determined to lead the most transparent government.'
Campaigners: Amid tight security, members of the press and a handful of protesters gathered in a fenced-off area just inside the grounds of the hotel, but around half a mile from the redbrick hotel
Sweep: Police are seen to be doing security checks in bushes outside the hotel grounds
Since its inception in 1954, Bilderberg has held annual gatherings of 120-150 invited political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media, designed to 'foster dialogue between Europe and North America'.
The group describes the conference as 'a forum for informal, off-the-record discussions about megatrends and the major issues facing the world' and states that the private nature of the meeting allows participants to 'listen, reflect and gather insights' without being bound by the conventions of office or by pre-agreed public positions.
There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.
Cloaked: Famous for being shrouded in secrecy, the Bilderberg conference is taking place in Britain for the first time since 1998 and conspiracy theorists believe this is where leaders plot world domination
Ring of steel: Police officers man a road block as delegates arrived for the four-day meeting
Several cars with blacked-out windows entered the gates of the Grove Hotel, near Watford, in Hertfordshire, have been seen arriving the secretive meeting.
It is thought billionaire executives from multinational companies such as Amazon and Google, high-ranking political figures including Chancellor George Osborne, senior minister Ken Clarke and shadow chancellor Ed Balls and even members of royal families are among the 130 or so attendees.
Downing Street refused to comment on the huge police operation surrounding the event, which has been heavily criticised.
Watford town mayor Dorothy Thornhill said: 'I think it's outrageous that the local taxpayer has to pick up the tab for ostensibly a private meeting of trillionaires, probably the most wealthy people in the world.
'Hertfordshire Constabulary have suddenly got this unexpected budget strain dumped on them at literally a month's notice. It's not on.'
Alert: Police on horseback patrol the area around the hotel as delegates arrive for the conference
Keeping watch: The traditionally secretive conference, which has taken place since 1954, is expected to be attended by politicians, bank bosses, businessman and European royalty
Hertfordshire Police has not revealed details of the bill, but they are in talks with the Home Office about a grant for 'unexpected or exceptional costs'.
This is only approved if expenditure threatens a force's budget, which would need to be more than one per cent of its overall spend - or about £1.8million, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Hertfordshire Police said the Bilderberg Group has agreed to contribute some of the cost of security, but taxpayers will have to cover the rest.
A spokesman added: 'We will also be seeking funding from other sources to help cover the costs of policing and are in discussion with the Home Office about other funding sources.'
BILDERBERG CONFERENCE 2013: FULL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
| Castries, Henri de (chairman) | Chairman and CEO, AXA Group | |||||||||
| Achleitner, Paul M. | Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG | |||||||||
| Ackermann, Josef | Chairman of the Board, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd | |||||||||
| Agius, Marcus | Former Chairman, Barclays plc | |||||||||
| Alexander, Helen | Chairman, UBM plc | |||||||||
| Altman, Roger C. | Executive Chairman, Evercore Partners | |||||||||
| Apunen, Matti | Director, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA | |||||||||
| Athey, Susan | Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business | |||||||||
| Aydıntaşbaş, Aslı | Columnist, Milliyet Newspaper | |||||||||
| Babacan, Ali | Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs | |||||||||
| Balls, Edward M. | Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer | |||||||||
| Balsemão, Francisco Pinto | Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA | |||||||||
| Barré, Nicolas | Managing Editor, Les Echos | |||||||||
| Barroso, José M. Durão | President, European Commission | |||||||||
| Baverez, Nicolas | Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP | |||||||||
| Bavinchove, Olivier de | Commander, Eurocorps | |||||||||
| Bell, John | Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford | |||||||||
| Bernabè, Franco | Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia S.p.A. | |||||||||
| Bezos, Jeff | Founder and CEO, Amazon.com | |||||||||
| Bildt, Carl | Minister for Foreign Affairs | |||||||||
| Borg, Anders | Minister for Finance | |||||||||
| Boxmeer, Jean François van | Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO, Heineken N.V. | |||||||||
| Brandtzæg, Svein Richard | President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA | |||||||||
| Bronner, Oscar | Publisher, Der Standard Medienwelt | |||||||||
| Carrington, Peter | Former Honorary Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings | |||||||||
| Cebrián, Juan Luis | Executive Chairman, Grupo PRISA | |||||||||
| Clark, W. Edmund | President and CEO, TD Bank Group | |||||||||
| Clarke, Kenneth | Member of Parliament | |||||||||
| Corydon, Bjarne | Minister of Finance | |||||||||
| Cowper-Coles, Sherard | Business Development Director, International, BAE Systems plc | |||||||||
| Cucchiani, Enrico Tommaso | CEO, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA | |||||||||
| Davignon, Etienne | Minister of State; Former Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings | |||||||||
| Davis, Ian | Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Company | |||||||||
| Dijkgraaf, Robbert H. | Director and Leon Levy Professor, Institute for Advanced Study | |||||||||
| Dinçer, Haluk | President, Retail and Insurance Group, Sabancı Holding A.S. | |||||||||
| Dudley, Robert | Group Chief Executive, BP plc | |||||||||
| Eberstadt, Nicholas N. | Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute | |||||||||
| Eide, Espen Barth | Minister of Foreign Affairs | |||||||||
| Ekholm, Börje | President and CEO, Investor AB | |||||||||
| Enders, Thomas | CEO, EADS | |||||||||
| Evans, J. Michael | Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co. | |||||||||
| Federspiel, Ulrik | Executive Vice President, Haldor Topsøe A/S | |||||||||
| Feldstein, Martin S. | Professor of Economics, Harvard University; President Emeritus, NBER | |||||||||
| Fillon, François | Former Prime Minister | |||||||||
| Fishman, Mark C. | President, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research | |||||||||
| Flint, Douglas J. | Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc | |||||||||
| Gallagher, Paul | Senior Counsel | |||||||||
| Geithner, Timothy F. | Former Secretary of the Treasury | |||||||||
| Gfoeller, Michael | Political Consultant | |||||||||
| Graham, Donald E. | Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company | |||||||||
| Grillo, Ulrich | CEO, Grillo-Werke AG | |||||||||
| Gruber, Lilli | Journalist - Anchorwoman, La 7 TV | |||||||||
| Guindos, Luis de | Minister of Economy and Competitiveness | |||||||||
| Gulliver, Stuart | Group Chief Executive, HSBC Holdings plc | |||||||||
| Gutzwiller, Felix | Member of the Swiss Council of States | |||||||||
| Halberstadt, Victor | Professor of Economics, Leiden University | |||||||||
| Heinonen, Olli | Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School | |||||||||
| Henry, Simon | CFO, Royal Dutch Shell plc | |||||||||
| Hermelin, Paul | Chairman and CEO, Capgemini Group | |||||||||
| Isla, Pablo | Chairman and CEO, Inditex Group | |||||||||
| Jacobs, Kenneth M. | Chairman and CEO, Lazard | |||||||||
| Johnson, James A. | Chairman, Johnson Capital Partners | |||||||||
| Jordan, Thomas J. | Chairman of the Governing Board, Swiss National Bank | |||||||||
| Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. | Managing Director, Lazard Freres & Co. LLC | |||||||||
| Kaplan, Robert D. | Chief Geopolitical Analyst, Stratfor | |||||||||
| Karp, Alex | Founder and CEO, Palantir Technologies | |||||||||
| Kerr, John | Independent Member, House of Lords | |||||||||
| Kissinger, Henry A. | Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc. | |||||||||
| Kleinfeld, Klaus | Chairman and CEO, Alcoa | |||||||||
| Knot, Klaas H.W. | President, De Nederlandsche Bank | |||||||||
| Koç, Mustafa V. | Chairman, Koç Holding A.S. | |||||||||
| Koch, Roland | CEO, Bilfinger SE | |||||||||
| Kravis, Henry R. | Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. | |||||||||
| Kravis, Marie-Josée | Senior Fellow and Vice Chair, Hudson Institute | |||||||||
| Kudelski, André | Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group | |||||||||
| Kyriacopoulos, Ulysses | Chairman, S&B Industrial Minerals S.A. | |||||||||
| Lagarde, Christine | Managing Director, International Monetary Fund | |||||||||
| Lauk, Kurt J. | Chairman of the Economic Council to the CDU, Berlin | |||||||||
| Lessig, Lawrence | Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School | |||||||||
| Leysen, Thomas | Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group | |||||||||
| Lindner, Christian | Party Leader, Free Democratic Party (FDP NRW) | |||||||||
| Löfven, Stefan | Party Leader, Social Democratic Party (SAP) | |||||||||
| Löscher, Peter | President and CEO, Siemens AG | |||||||||
| Mandelson, Peter | Chairman, Global Counsel; Chairman, Lazard International | |||||||||
| Mathews, Jessica T. | President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | |||||||||
| McKenna, Frank | Chair, Brookfield Asset Management | |||||||||
| Micklethwait, John | Editor-in-Chief, The Economist | |||||||||
| Montbrial, Thierry de | President, French Institute for International Relations | |||||||||
| Monti, Mario | Former Prime Minister | |||||||||
| Mundie, Craig J. | Senior Advisor to the CEO, Microsoft Corporation | |||||||||
| Nagel, Alberto | CEO, Mediobanca | |||||||||
| Netherlands, H.R.H. Princess Beatrix of The | ||||||||||
| Ng, Andrew Y. | Co-Founder, Coursera | |||||||||
| Ollila, Jorma | Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell, plc | |||||||||
| Omand, David | Visiting Professor, King's College London | |||||||||
| Osborne, George | Chancellor of the Exchequer | |||||||||
| Ottolenghi, Emanuele | Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies | |||||||||
| Özel, Soli | Senior Lecturer, Kadir Has University; Columnist, Habertürk Newspaper | |||||||||
| Papahelas, Alexis | Executive Editor, Kathimerini Newspaper | |||||||||
| Pavey, Şafak | Member of Parliament (CHP) | |||||||||
| Pécresse, Valérie | Member of Parliament (UMP) | |||||||||
| Perle, Richard N. | Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute | |||||||||
| Petraeus, David H. | General, U.S. Army (Retired) | |||||||||
| Portas, Paulo | Minister of State and Foreign Affairs | |||||||||
| Prichard, J. Robert S. | Chair, Torys LLP | |||||||||
| Reding, Viviane | Vice President and Commissioner for Justice, European Commission | |||||||||
| Reisman, Heather M. | CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. | |||||||||
| Rey, Hélène | Professor of Economics, London Business School | |||||||||
| Robertson, Simon | Partner, Robertson Robey Associates LLP; Deputy Chairman, HSBC Holdings | |||||||||
| Rocca, Gianfelice | Chairman,Techint Group | |||||||||
| Rostowski, Jacek | Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister | |||||||||
| Rubin, Robert E. | Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury | |||||||||
| Rutte, Mark | Prime Minister | |||||||||
| Schieder, Andreas | State Secretary of Finance | |||||||||
| Schmidt, Eric E. | Executive Chairman, Google Inc. | |||||||||
| Scholten, Rudolf | Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG | |||||||||
| Seguro, António José | Secretary General, Socialist Party | |||||||||
| Senard, Jean-Dominique | CEO, Michelin Group | |||||||||
| Skogen Lund, Kristin | Director General, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise | |||||||||
| Slaughter, Anne-Marie | Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton | |||||||||
| Sutherland, Peter D. | Chairman, Goldman Sachs International | |||||||||
| Taylor, Martin | Former Chairman, Syngenta AG | |||||||||
| Thiam, Tidjane | Group CEO, Prudential plc | |||||||||
| Thiel, Peter A. | President, Thiel Capital | |||||||||
| Thompson, Craig B. | President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center | |||||||||
| Topsøe, Jakob Haldor | Partner, AMBROX Capital A/S | |||||||||
| Urpilainen, Jutta | Minister of Finance | |||||||||
| Vasella, Daniel L. | Honorary Chairman, Novartis AG | |||||||||
| Voser, Peter R. | CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc | |||||||||
| Wall, Brad | Premier of Saskatchewan | |||||||||
| Wallenberg, Jacob | Chairman, Investor AB | |||||||||
| Warsh, Kevin | Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University | |||||||||
| Weston, Galen G. | Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies Limited | |||||||||
| Williams of Crosby, Shirley | Member, House of Lords | |||||||||
| Wolf, Martin H. | Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times | |||||||||
| Wolfensohn, James D. | Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn and Company | |||||||||
| Wright, David | Vice Chairman, Barclays plc | |||||||||
| Zoellick, Robert B. | Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics | |||||||||
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337407/David-Cameron-attend-secretive-Bilderberg-Group-conference-say-meets.html#ixzz2VX9dfKK3
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