Turning Point UK
Turning Point UK (TPUK) is a British offshoot of the American student pressure group Turning Point USA.[1] 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.[2][3] The close similarity of Turning Point UK's rhetoric and target demographic to that of Generation Identity, a continental European group whose intentions are racist and Islamophobic, has been noted by scholars of hate studies and the far-right.[4]
Not to be confused with Turning Point (charity).Abbreviation
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".[5]
The group was launched in December 2018[6] by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, and Candace Owens, then the communications director of the US group,[7] at the Royal Automobile Club in London.[6] On the day of its social media launch in February 2019, Tory MPs including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel tweeted supportive messages for the group.[8][9] Labour MP David Lammy observed that the launch and its Tory support are evidence that the Conservative Party "openly promotes hard-right, xenophobic bile".[10] From its inception, the organisation and its leading members were the subject of widespread popular ridicule. It was described by the BBC as "a tsunami of online mockery".[11][12]
Protests against drag queens[edit]
The Honor Oak pub protests[edit]
On the 25 February 2023, Turning Point UK held a protest in Lewisham, London, against a drag queen event at the "Honor Oak" pub. Writers for the left-wing outlet Novara Media wrote on the protest, noting that the Turning Point UK activists were greatly outnumbered by counter protestors who supported the drag queen event, and the Turning Point UK activist's protest was then confined hundreds of meters away from the pub.[20] Both the PinkNews and Southwark News also reported on the number of pro-drag queen counter-protestors vastly outnumbering the Turning Point UK activists.[21][22]
Turning Point UK held another protest outside the Honor Oak in June, in which three people were arrested, and one trans activist was photographed with blood pouring down their face.[23][24] Turning Point UK then made posts on twitter which implied that the activist had faked their injuries.[25][24]
The Great Exhibition pub protest[edit]
On the 10 March 2023, Turning Point UK staged a protest in East Dulwich against an alleged Drag Queen Story Hour outside a pub called "The Great Exhibition."[26] However according to the BBC News the drag queen event that Turning Point UK was protesting against did not exist and that the pub was empty during the protest.[26] The drag queen event that Turning Point UK had organised a protest against was based on an outdated advertisement for a drag queen event had already happened the year prior in 2022.[26] Turning Point UK claimed that there had been a cover-up, and that the pub had deleted one of their drag queen advertisements.[22] The Turning Point UK protest was counter-protested by both LGBT and anti-fascist activists.[26] Turning Point UK's protest against a non-existent drag queen show was mocked by a writer for Novara Media.[20]