heaven above
October 5th, 2004, 09:18 AM
:D sykes pulls plug on Kilroy
Sheffield Star
SOUTH Yorkshire-born tycoon Paul Sykes has dealt a body blow to the UK Independence Party - by announcing he will not be contributing any more of his millions to its funds.
Mr Sykes, who was born in Barnsley and is worth an estimated £500 million, has contributed £1.4 million of his fortune to the anti-European Union party.
But the 60-year-old miner's son says he now believes the Conservatives offer the best chance of getting Britain out of the EU and has decided he will not fund UKIP's campaign at the next General Election.
The announcement is an unexpected boost for the struggling Tories, whose party conference is taking place in Bournemouth this week.
They were beaten into fourth place by UKIP in a by-election last week in Hartlepool.
Mr Sykes, who left school at 15 with no qualifications but made his first million at 28, propelled UKIP to spectacular success in this year's Euro elections.
He paid for advertising, polls and a leaflet campaign. UKIP took third place in the European ballot and sent 12 Euro-MPs to Brussels, including Robert Kilroy-Silk.
But multi-millionaire Mr Sykes - believed to be the second-richest property magnate in Yorkshire and UKIP's biggest donor - is now unhappy with the party's pledge to fight every constituency at the next election.
Would-be leader Kilroy-Silk's declaration that he wanted to "kill" the Conservative Party is understood to have been the turning point for Mr Sykes, who has twice left the Tories over Europe.
Mr Sykes, who made £280 million from the sale of Meadowhall shopping centre and made his first millions exporting second-hand buses and lorries to the developing world, said today: "I will not be funding any part of the General Election campaign for UKIP.
"Their policy of fielding candidates in all constituencies, when they have little or no chance of winning enough seats to have any real effect, will only damage the Conservative Party."
He said he welcomed the way Conservative Party policy on Europe had developed and said he believed only the Tories could form an alternative government to Labour.
"There is only one major party now that is anti-Brussels," he said. "I am at least warming to what I am hearing from the Conservative Party."
05 October 2004
Sheffield Star
SOUTH Yorkshire-born tycoon Paul Sykes has dealt a body blow to the UK Independence Party - by announcing he will not be contributing any more of his millions to its funds.
Mr Sykes, who was born in Barnsley and is worth an estimated £500 million, has contributed £1.4 million of his fortune to the anti-European Union party.
But the 60-year-old miner's son says he now believes the Conservatives offer the best chance of getting Britain out of the EU and has decided he will not fund UKIP's campaign at the next General Election.
The announcement is an unexpected boost for the struggling Tories, whose party conference is taking place in Bournemouth this week.
They were beaten into fourth place by UKIP in a by-election last week in Hartlepool.
Mr Sykes, who left school at 15 with no qualifications but made his first million at 28, propelled UKIP to spectacular success in this year's Euro elections.
He paid for advertising, polls and a leaflet campaign. UKIP took third place in the European ballot and sent 12 Euro-MPs to Brussels, including Robert Kilroy-Silk.
But multi-millionaire Mr Sykes - believed to be the second-richest property magnate in Yorkshire and UKIP's biggest donor - is now unhappy with the party's pledge to fight every constituency at the next election.
Would-be leader Kilroy-Silk's declaration that he wanted to "kill" the Conservative Party is understood to have been the turning point for Mr Sykes, who has twice left the Tories over Europe.
Mr Sykes, who made £280 million from the sale of Meadowhall shopping centre and made his first millions exporting second-hand buses and lorries to the developing world, said today: "I will not be funding any part of the General Election campaign for UKIP.
"Their policy of fielding candidates in all constituencies, when they have little or no chance of winning enough seats to have any real effect, will only damage the Conservative Party."
He said he welcomed the way Conservative Party policy on Europe had developed and said he believed only the Tories could form an alternative government to Labour.
"There is only one major party now that is anti-Brussels," he said. "I am at least warming to what I am hearing from the Conservative Party."
05 October 2004