Paul Sykes (businessman)

Paul Sykes (born 30 May 1943) is an English businessman, political donor, noted opponent of the European Union and philanthropist.

Business

Born in Cudworth near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Sykes was 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. In 1998 Sykes sold it for £85 million to Energis.^[1]

In 2004, his wealth was estimated at some £650 million.^[2]

Politics

Sykes is a vehement opponent of the European Union and is noted for his belief that it represents a conspiracy to create an undemocratic superstate. By October 2004, he was estimated to have donated £6 million to eurosceptic campaigns.^[3]

Sykes left the Conservative 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, founded by Lady Annabel Goldsmith as a successor to the 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.

On 17 November 2013, Sykes announced that he would do "whatever it takes" to help make the UK Independence Party (UKIP) be successful in the 2014 European Parliament elections.^[6]

Philanthropy

After treatment for the disease at the hospital in 2000, he funded the construction of a specialist prostate cancer unit at St James's University Hospital, Leeds.^[2] Sykes donated over £1m to the restoration of the Royal Hall in Harrogate. He funded Sir Ranulph Fiennes' expeditions on the Eiger for the British Heart Foundation, and the Everest Challenge for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Personal life

Sykes met and married Valeria when he was 24; they are currently separated.^[2] Sykes has vowed not to leave any of his fortune to his children, except for buying them houses, to encourage them to make their own way in the world.^[7]

The couple lived in a property just outside Ripon, North Yorkshire. Disturbed by noise from an English Civil War re-enactment within the grounds of Fountains Abbey, which is near his home, he unsuccessfully offered to buy the historic site from the National Trust.^[2]

References