Al Jazeera investigation links UVF member to Turning Point UK
Al Jazeera has published an investigation alleging that Allan Nesbitt, a convicted criminal and member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, has links to the British right-wing group Turning Point UK (TPUK). The report, titled "Contract Killers and the Far Right," was published on 21 October 2026.
The investigation began in 2021, when an undercover reporter joined TPUK. Al Jazeera describes the group as an independent offshoot of the US organisation Turning Point USA. According to the report, TPUK chief executive Jack Ross, who stood as a Conservative Party candidate in 2023, introduced the reporter to Nesbitt, who is from Glasgow.
Al Jazeera says its undercover reporter filmed Ross agreeing to pay Nesbitt thousands of pounds to stage a fake political rally in support of lifting UK sanctions against Zimbabwe. Sanctions are restrictions a government places on another country, usually to press for political or economic change.
Ross also told the undercover operative that, for a certain amount, Nesbitt and his contacts could carry out physical attacks, including stabbing or shooting someone, or killing them, the report says.
In a London hotel meeting recorded by Al Jazeera, Nesbitt said he could arrange a killing, at a price, with help from his UVF connections. The meeting concerned a business dispute that the reporters had set up as a fiction.
In a later video call, Nesbitt showed the undercover operatives a shotgun, a pistol and live ammunition. He told Al Jazeera that money raised in Scotland would be used to buy weapons that he smuggles into Ireland for the UVF, and that he has been involved in such smuggling for many years.
The report also quotes journalist Patricia Devlin, who said the UVF killed over 500 people between 1966 and 1999. The UVF was one of the main loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles, the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland.
A photo caption accompanying the report identifies Ross and Nick Tenconi as being part of Turning Point UK.
