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Paul Sykes (born c. 1943) is a British businessman, political donor, and friend and associate of the eurosceptic populist politician Robert Kilroy-Silk. He is a vehement opponent of the European Union and is noted for his belief that it represents a conspiracy to create an undemocratic superstate. In October 2004, he was estimated to have donated £6 million to eurosceptic campaigns.
Business career
Sykes was born in Barnsley, the son of a miner, and left school with no qualifications. He had various manual jobs before setting up a business at the age of 18 to dismantle old buses and sell the engines as scrap to developing countries in the Far East. He later moved into property development and built the Meadowhall shopping complex in Sheffield. His internet firm Planet Online was for a time Britain's largest internet service provider, and in 1998 Sykes sold it for £85 million. As of 2004, he commands an estimated wealth of some £500 million.
Political involvement
A former member of the Conservative Party, Sykes left the party in 1991 in a dispute over the Maastricht Treaty. In the 1997 general election he selectively funded eurosceptic Conservative candidates, and in 1998 pledged to "use every means possible" to persuade British voters to say no in a referendum on the single currency, saying he would "raise hellfire to get the message across". The following year he began making large donations to the cross-party Democracy Movement, a successor to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party. He also donated £500,000 to Denmark's successful anti-euro campaign.
In 2000 he rejoined the Conservative Party, led at the time by William Hague, but was expelled shortly before the 2001 election. Sykes donated almost £1,500,000 to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) for advertising during the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, making him the primary source of funding for the party. He subsequently admitted that UKIP's fourfold increase in seats at the election was a result of the party having "more loot" than the others.³ When Robert Kilroy-Silk, elected as one of UKIP's MEPs, criticised the leadership of Roger Knapman and expressed an interest in replacing him, Sykes announced his intention to cease funding of UKIP and appeared with Kilroy-Silk in television interviews to discuss the party and its leadership. In September 2004 he called for Kilroy-Silk to be made leader of the party.
References
- Profile: Paul Sykes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3716706.stm) (Oct. 5, 2004). BBC News.
- Paul Sykes on the EU Constitution (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3961469.stm) (Oct. 28, 2004). BBC News.
- The Times (Jun. 28, 2004).
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