Turning Point UK forced to refund tickets for Notts Q&A

Recently formed conservative student political group Turning Point UK have been forced to refund tickets for a Q&A set to take place at UoN March.

The event – a debate with the organisation's US leaders and student "personalities" – was originally billed as "hosted by the Nottingham University Conservative Society" and held at Nottingham University.

However, a NUCA committee member has told The Nottingham Tab they know nothing of the event, and UoN have confirmed they also know nothing about the event.

Now, tickets have been refunded, and the event carries no mention of UoN or NUCA.

In an email sent to those who purchased tickets for the event, Turning Point UK apologised for refunding tickets promising to "re-publish the event very shortly due to some technical issues."

The Nottingham Tab asked Turning Point UK what these technical issues were. They declined to comment.

The event was set to take place on the 12th of March, running from 7pm till 10pm on University Park campus with "room to be confirmed". Student tickets can be bought for £5 and non-students for £10.

(L-R) Tom Harwood, Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Dominique Samuels

Conservative political activist Candace Owens and frequent Fox News guest Charlie Kirk are expected to be in attendance, among two of the six UK representatives, York student Dominique Samuels and Durham grad Tom Harwood, who are pictured on the event page.

It was revealed that Samuels had supported and voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the last election.

Buzzfeed News reported that Tom Harwood, former NUS delegate, had left the organisation, quoting that “I don't have a formal role as part of Turning Point UK.”

Speaking to The Nottingham Tab on a possible collaboration with Nottingham University Conservative Association (NUCA), a Students' Union spokesperson said: “This is not a group that is affiliated to the Students’ Union and this event has not at this stage been authorised by the University.

“Any application for such an event would be considered through our events and guest speaker process.”

Before the ticket page for the event was taken down today and subsequently re-uploaded, Turning Point UK claimed that the event would be held in collaboration with NUCA.

However, when asked for confirmation of this claim NUCA's Treasurer, Charlie Goodall, stated that "to my knowledge [the event isn't] NUCA-related," adding that "I don't think the committee thinks very highly of Turning Point UK."

The Nottingham Tab asked TPUK whether they were able to deny NUCA that NUCA were unaware of the event. They declined to comment.