UK Conservative Party suspends former candidate after Al Jazeera investigation | Al Jazeera Originals News

British Conservatives suspend former candidate Jack Ross after he was filmed discussing hiring hitmen.

Britain’s Conservative Party has suspended Jack Ross, a former election candidate and party member, after an Al Jazeera documentary showed him discussing the cost of hiring hitmen and offering to negotiate for the services of a far-right activist with alleged links to paramilitaries.

Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation, Contract Killers and the Far Right, began in 2021 when an undercover journalist joined Turning Point UK (TPUK), an independent offshoot of the US right-wing activist group Turning Point USA.

TPUK has close links with several senior figures in the British Conservative Party, as well as the leaders of Reform UK.

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

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

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

“They can kick someone. They can start cutting people’s faces. That’s another amount. They can stab someone,” Ross said. “They could shoot someone. They could kill someone.”