On Wednesday 20th November, Turning Point UK set up a stall outside the Saw Swee Hock building, upon being approached by Activities & Development Officer Jack Boyd the group was asked to leave the area.
The SU explained that the area was reserved for LSESU affiliated societies. Turning Point UK does not have an LSE chapter. Turning Point UK is a right-wing youth movement started in the United States, expanding to the UK in January of this year.
Asked for a comment, Jack Boyd said to The Beaver “ A concerned student raised the stall to my attention, and after asking if they were LSE students, or part of an LSE society, of which they were neither, I politely asked them to leave. The two people on the stall slowly obliged.
He added: “I’m all for debate on campus, with the leaders of our political societies taking part in a brilliant hustings today. However, Turning Point UK is not an LSESU group, so the decision was made not to accommodate them. Any groups wanting to book space on Sheffield Street can do so via an event form on Committee Hub, or by hiring through our Marketing Department. Not just by turning up with a table and some posters.”
[Further coverage of Turning Point UK in The Beaver: “The Right-Wing Student Group That Is Falling Apart Before It Has Begun” by Jason Reed, and “‘Too West Wing for The Thick of It’: Why Young American activism keeps failing in Britain” by Adam Solomons and Haydon Etherington]
