Al Jazeera investigation: UK far-right group linked to part-time assassin and arms smuggling

An Al Jazeera investigation has alleged that a paramilitary figure linked to a banned UK terrorist organisation has close ties to a far-right student group in the country.

According to the investigation, Allan Nesbitt, a convicted member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), is connected to Turning Point UK (TPUK), the British offshoot of the far-right activist group Turning Point USA. TPUK is said to have close relations with several senior members of the British Conservative Party and the leader of Reform UK.

The investigation, titled “Contract Killers and the Far Right”, began in 2021 when an Al Jazeera reporter infiltrated TPUK. Jack Ross, TPUK’s chief executive and a former Conservative candidate in 2023, introduced the reporter to Nesbitt, who is from Glasgow, Scotland.

According to the reporter’s recordings, Ross said he had a long-standing relationship with Nesbitt and agreed to pay him thousands of pounds to stage a fake political protest aimed at showing support for lifting British sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Ross also told the reporter that, for “a certain amount of money”, Nesbitt and his contacts could arrange physical attacks, or even killings.

A killing deal caught on camera

To test Ross’s claims about Nesbitt, the Al Jazeera reporter constructed a story about a business dispute with a fictional rival and asked for the rival to be “dealt with”.

At a private meeting in a London hotel, Nesbitt said he could “arrange anything that needs doing”, but that “it has to be worth it”. That included the fictional killing, carried out with the help of UVF contacts.

Nesbitt said the target would have a “horrific accident” and be “finished off”, and claimed he had killed people with a knife in the past. In a later video call, Nesbitt showed a shotgun, a handgun and live ammunition to demonstrate he had the means to carry it out.

Arms smuggling

According to Nesbitt, the money paid for the killing would be used to arm the UVF in Northern Ireland. He said funds were raised in Scotland, weapons were bought in Scotland and then smuggled into Ireland, and said he had been involved in the activity for many years, including during The Troubles.

Journalist Patricia Devlin, who has investigated the UVF for years, said the group carried out more than 500 killings between 1966 and 1999, including the 1971 McGurk’s bar bombing that killed 15 people and the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings that killed 33. After the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, she said, the UVF gradually morphed into traditional criminal gangs but still uses the UVF name.

Roy McComb, former deputy director of the UK’s National Crime Agency, said the link between loyalism in Northern Ireland and Scotland is strong and long-standing, with previous evidence of gun smuggling, intelligence sharing and the movement of figures between the two countries. Guns, he said, are a tool that can be sold, including to the far right.

Links to far-right groups

Beyond the UVF, the investigation also points to links between TPUK and other far-right groups that have led anti-migrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rights protests.

Ciaran O’Connor, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said TPUK “admires” these groups and uses such events to amplify support, attack opposing views and discredit asylum seeker accommodation.

A former UVF member told Al Jazeera that the British far right is currently “a toothless tiger”, but that links to groups such as the UVF could change that, because these people were behind a terrorist campaign lasting about 40 years, remain armed and are still capable of shooting and bombing.

Al Jazeera said it informed Police Scotland about Allan Nesbitt and his weapons in the interest of public safety. Jack Ross denied all the investigation’s findings, saying nothing he told the reporter was meant seriously. The other parties mentioned did not respond to requests for comment.