Conservative Party suspends ex-candidate filmed in Al Jazeera investigation

An undercover investigation by Al Jazeera, launched in 2021, infiltrated Turning Point UK, an independent offshoot of the US right-wing group Turning Point USA.

The UK’s Conservative Party has suspended a former election candidate after an Al Jazeera documentary showed him discussing the cost of hiring contract killers and offering to broker the services of a far-right activist with alleged paramilitary links.

Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation, Contract Killers and the Far Right, began in 2021 when an undercover reporter joined Turning Point UK (TPUK), an independent offshoot of the right-wing US activist group Turning Point USA. TPUK has close ties to several senior British Conservative Party members, as well as to leaders of Reform UK.

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TPUK’s CEO Jack Ross stood as a Conservative Party candidate in 2023. Ross introduced Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter to Nesbitt, who is from Glasgow, Scotland.

“Mr Ross’s membership of the Conservative party has been suspended with immediate effect pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while the investigation is ongoing,” a Conservative Party spokesperson told The Guardian.

Ross also told Al Jazeera’s undercover operative that for “a certain amount”, Nesbitt and his contacts could arrange physical attacks.

“They can kick the f*** out of someone. They can start cutting people’s faces up. That’s another amount. They can stab someone,” Ross said. “They can shoot someone. They could kill someone.”