Party suspends Ross's membership
The Conservatives have suspended Ross's membership while they investigate the allegations aired by Al Jazeera this week. Party leader Kemi Badenoch called them "shocking allegations" and said she did not "believe that person is a member anymore".
According to the BBC, Ross's social media assignment was brief and carried out under contract. He was not a party employee and did not hold a Conservative Campaign Headquarters pass.
Al Jazeera said Ross denied its findings "completely" and maintained that his remarks to the undercover reporter were not intended seriously.
The undercover encounter
Al Jazeera said its reporter approached Ross in 2022, posing as someone whose family business faced a takeover by a criminal gang. In the resulting footage, Ross allegedly asks what help the reporter wants and describes paid options involving stabbing, shooting and killing.
The documentary, "Contract Killers and the Far Right", centers on Allan Nesbitt, a convicted violent criminal from Glasgow. Al Jazeera identifies him as a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, a proscribed terrorist organization, and reports that he offered to arrange killings for money. Ross introduced the undercover reporter to Nesbitt, according to the broadcaster.
Al Jazeera also reported a separate financial connection: it said Ross, acting for Zimbabwe's government, paid Nesbitt thousands of pounds to stage a fake political rally calling for the removal of UK sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Roy McComb, a former deputy director of the UK's National Crime Agency, told Al Jazeera that, in his view, connections between a paramilitary-backed criminal and Britain's anti-migrant protest movement presented a public safety risk.
Political ties and police review
Ross is chief executive of Turning Point UK, the British offshoot of Turning Point USA. The US conservative activist organization was founded by the late Republican commentator Charlie Kirk.
Through his Turning Point UK role, Ross met Badenoch several times. He has also met former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. In Hampshire's 2023 local elections, he ran as a Conservative candidate.
Turning Point UK has been asked to comment. Police Scotland said it knew about the documentary and would examine it to assess whether any criminal offenses had occurred. At the time of reporting, it had not announced a formal investigation.
