Turning Point UK

Turning Point UK (TPUK) is a British offshoot of the American student pressure group Turning Point USA. The UK group was set up to promote right-wing politics in UK schools, colleges and universities, with the stated aim of countering what Turning Point UK alleges are the left-wing politics of UK educational institutions. The close similarity of Turning Point UK's rhetoric and target demographic to that of Generation Identity, a continental European group with racist and Islamophobic intentions, has been noted by scholars of hate studies and the far-right. Turning Point UK describes its objectives as promoting "the values of free markets, limited government and personal responsibility". It says it does this to counter what it alleges is "a dogmatic left-wing political climate, education system and radical Labour Party" which, Turning Point UK claims, "sympathises with terrorists [and] wishes to disarm the nation". The group was launched in December 2018 by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, and Candace Owens. At its inception, the organisation and its leading members were the subject of widespread ridicule, described by the BBC in 2019 as "a tsunami of online mockery". In 2021 Nick Tenconi became its Chief Operating Officer and its focus shifted from influencing the conservative movement to street protests.