The UK Conservative Party has suspended the membership of a former election candidate after an Al Jazeera investigation recorded him discussing the cost of hiring hitmen and offering to act as an intermediary for a far-right activist suspected of links to paramilitary forces.
According to the investigation, titled Contract Killers and the Far Right, the Al Jazeera undercover probe began in 2021, when one of its reporters infiltrated Turning Point UK (TPUK), described as an independent offshoot of the US-based right-wing campaign group Turning Point USA.
TPUK is said to have close ties to several senior members of the UK Conservative Party as well as to the leader of Reform UK.
TPUK's chief executive, Jack Ross, previously stood for election as a Conservative Party candidate in 2023. According to the report, Ross introduced Al Jazeera's undercover reporter to a man named Nesbitt from Glasgow, Scotland.
Responding to The Guardian, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: "Mr Ross's party membership has been suspended with immediate effect, pending the outcome of an investigation. We cannot comment further while an investigation is ongoing."
The investigation also reports that Ross told Al Jazeera's undercover reporter that, for "a certain amount of money", Nesbitt and his contacts could carry out physical attacks.
The report quotes Ross describing the actions that could be carried out, from beatings, face slashings and stabbings to shooting or killing, with different costs attached to each.
