Opposition parties have called on the Conservatives to cut ties with a rightwing student group that has described drag artists as “groomers”, called UK schools “Maoist indoctrination camps” and held protests alongside an anti-Islam pastor.
While Turning Point UK (TPUK) says it has no formal links to the party, a Conservative MP, Marco Longhi, is the group’s honorary president, and it has previously been praised by former ministers Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg, as well as the deputy party chair, Lee Anderson.
Launched in 2019 as a spin-off from a pro-Donald Trump US youth campaign that advocates free markets and small government, TPUK has increasingly devoted itself to “culture war” issues, notably protests outside children’s story events hosted by drag acts, whom the group’s Twitter account has called “groomers”.
Among speakers at a TPUK-organised event was Rikki Doolan, a pastor who argues that women “should always be subject to the man” in marriage, and has condemned the use of public buildings for Islamic prayers during Ramadan.
Nick Tenconi, the chief operating officer of TPUK, posted a tweet last year describing himself as a “huge fan” of Kyle Rittenhouse, the young US man who shot dead two people at a protest and was acquitted of murder in 2021.
In other tweets, Tenconi has used language associated with misogynist men’s groups, for example calling some men “betas”, and describing Prince Harry as a “cuck”, a term derived from “cuckold”.
TPUK’s own Twitter feed has called for Labour MPs and Channel 4 bosses to be jailed, argued that UK schools are “Maoist indoctrination camps”, stated that many liberals support paedophilia, and called for rapists to be castrated.
TPUK is not connected to the longstanding charity and social enterprise Turning Point, which works with addiction, mental health and other areas.
Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party chair, said: “The nasty party is well and truly back. It’s extremely concerning to see senior Conservatives associating themselves with what looks to most people an awful lot like a far-right group.”
The Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said: “As a Liberal, it is deeply concerning that a member of parliament from any party is associating with a group that promotes harmful and regressive ideas about women and minority groups.
“I urge Marco Longhi to remove himself from this position and take action to ensure that Turning Point’s divisive and dangerous rhetoric is not given a platform in our society.”
Longhi and his constituency office were contacted for comment, as was the Conservative party.
A TPUK spokesperson said the group had no formal link to the Conservative party, and that Longhi’s role had “no day-to-day involvement with the running of TPUK”.
They said: “Only opinions and viewpoints expressed on the Turning Point UK social media pages reflect Turning Point’s message. Any other tweets or posts are an individual’s opinion. As a company policy, we don’t comment on individuals, but we do however believe in free speech and think that everyone has the right to an opinion, even if we disagree.
“Since Turning Point UK launched in 2019 we have had hundreds of external speakers and video contributors – including people we disagree with 99% of the time but agree with on one issue. We certainly do not police people’s social media.”
The group has “multiple Muslim members” and has “strived to build bridges between Christian and Islamic communities in the UK”, the statement added.
While the group does not believe all liberals are paedophiles, it added, there was “increasing evidence that some elements of the left are trying to normalise paedophilia”.
• This article was amended on 17 April 2023 because an earlier version said that the pastor Rikki Doolan was a regular speaker at events organised by the rightwing student group Turning Point UK. Turning Point UK say he has spoken at one of their protests.
