Al Jazeera published on Wednesday the investigation “Contract Killers and the Far Right.” An undercover reporter, inside Turning Point UK since 2021, was introduced by chief executive Jack Ross to Allan Nesbitt, from Glasgow, described as linked to the banned UVF. On tape, in a London hotel, Nesbitt offers to “arrange” even a killing, for a price. It is a published investigation. It is not a new conviction. It is not a ban on TPUK.

Ross, a Conservative candidate in 2023, tells the reporter that, for money, Nesbitt’s contacts can run from beatings to murder. As a test, the reporter invented a business rival. Nesbitt: he can arrange it, “at a price”; the man can have “a bad accident”; he would be “finished.” He later showed, on a video call, a shotgun, a pistol and ammunition. The money, he said, would go to arm the UVF, bought in Scotland and taken into Ireland. Those are his claims on tape. They are not a verdict.

Al Jazeera notified Police Scotland, in the public interest. Police Scotland: the documentary will be reviewed, to see if offences were committed. That is not a charge. Ross denies the findings “completely” and says nothing he told the reporter was meant seriously. Nesbitt did not reply. The Conservative Party suspended Ross’s membership pending an internal investigation, a spokesperson told The Guardian. A party suspension. It is not a TPUK ban. It is not a closed criminal case.

Patricia Devlin, a journalist who follows the UVF: after 1998 the group moved towards ordinary crime, keeping the name. Roy McComb, a former National Crime Agency deputy: firearms traffic between Scotland and Northern Ireland has a history. Ciaran O’Connor, of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue: TPUK attaches itself to tougher people, to protect itself. A former UVF member, quoted by Al Jazeera: the British far right is a “toothless tiger,” until it links to people still armed. Those are readings. They are not sentences.

Nesbitt is described as already convicted. Old convictions do not try Wednesday’s tape. The infiltration lasted years. The publication is 21 October. Police are looking. A court has not ruled.

Source consulted: Paramilitary hitman linked to British right-wing group Turning Point UK — Al Jazeera.

Image: the Palace of Westminster, London, 17 November 2023, Julian Herzog, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Parliament, not the hotel in the investigation.

Sources consulted: Scots far right loyalist secretly filmed offering to arrange murders — The Scottish Sun / Police Scotland.