{"id":813730,"date":"2026-10-25T19:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/813730\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T19:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:40:11","slug":"former-tory-candidate-suspended-over-contract-killer-claims-was-adviser-in-kemi-badenochs-office-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/813730\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tory candidate suspended over contract killer claims was adviser in Kemi Badenoch\u2019s office | Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Conservative election candidate who was suspended after he was filmed discussing the cost of hiring contract killers worked as a consultant in Kemi Badenoch\u2019s office as recently as last year.<\/p>\n

Jack Ross is facing an investigation by the Tories after he was filmed apparently asking an undercover reporter: \u201cWhat do you want done?\u201d and apparently offering to \u201cbroker\u201d the services of an alleged far-right paramilitary group.<\/p>\n

Police in Scotland say they will be reviewing an Al Jazeera documentary in which Ross was filmed making a range comments about what a contract killer could be employed to do, and talked about using far-right groups to create disruption on the streets.<\/p>\n

It has now emerged that he was working in 2025 in the leader of the opposition\u2019s office, which can draw on taxpayer funds to pay staff. By that point, Ross was CEO of Turning Point UK, which was already involving itself in anti-migrant street protests, and listed its chief operating officer as Nick Tenconi, the leader of Ukip.<\/p>\n

Sources close to Badenoch said Ross was contracted as a junior social media external consultant in her office. However, a Tory staffer familiar with the role of Ross at that time said: \u201cJack would come and go in the office and a few people raised their eyebrows, but it was brushed under the carpet because he got the party clicks on socials.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have been in the same room as Kemi and she would have been aware of him. Some MPs were uncomfortable about it, but senior figures were clear that social media clicks were more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross was reported by Al Jazeera<\/a> to have introduced an undercover reporter to a violent criminal from Glasgow with links to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, who offered to have people killed for money.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera approached Ross with a fictitious family problem where a deceased uncle\u2019s business was at risk of being taken over by a gang, whose members were supposedly warned they would \u201cget fucked\u201d if anything happened.<\/p>\n

Ross replied to this saying: \u201cYeah, you have to deliver on that as well. You\u2019ve got to explain to me what\u2019s needed \u2026 I can then go and broker from there. But I\u2019ve got to say, even to myself \u2026 if there\u2019s lashback I\u2019ve got to keep my name out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On another occasion, Ross was filmed apparently asking an undercover reporter \u201cWhat do you want done?\u201d before listing the type of violent options that could be bought.<\/p>\n

Ross appeared to tell the Al Jazeera journalist: \u201cThey can just kick the fuck out of someone. That\u2019s a certain amount. They can start cutting people\u2019s faces up, that\u2019s another amount. And they can stab someone. They can shoot someone. They can kill someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross, who stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative local election candidate, became CEO of Turning Point UK (TPUK) in 2021, the British offshoot of the US campaign group established by the late rightwing American activist Charlie Kirk. Ross became a fixture of the British rightwing scene, appearing regularly on GB News and joining the conservative thinktank the Bow Group.<\/p>\n

TPUK was intended to be a campus-based offshoot of the US group and initially endorsed by leading Tory figures such as Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Early members included younger rightwingers such as Tom Harwood, who went on to become a GB News anchor.<\/p>\n

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However, it began reinventing itself as a street-protest group after the addition of Tenconi, who has worked closely with Ross, as its COO. Tenconi, as leader of Ukip, has been at the forefont of leading immigration protests in recent years, blending anti-migrant rhetoric with Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

Footage released by TPUK last year showed Ross and others from the group meeting Badenoch after Kirk\u2019s death<\/p>\n

TPUK has not responded to the allegations but Tenconi staged a stunt outside King\u2019s College London on Thursday in an imitation of the campus-based events held by Kirk. A gazebo with TPUK branding was surrounded by students and protesters chanting in opposition.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera filmed Tenconi in the company of Ross in 2022 as they discussed the formation of a \u201cnew right\u201d which would include the engagement of far-right activists who could cause disruption on the streets, as well as what Tenconi described as the \u201cwinning over\u201d of sympathetic MPs.<\/p>\n

A Tory spokesperson said: \u201cMr Ross\u2019s membership of the Conservative party has been suspended with immediate effect pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while the investigation is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross and Tenconi have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Conservative election candidate who was suspended after he was filmed discussing the cost of hiring contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-813730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}