Son of a miner, self-made millionare Paul Sykes: 'I want to set UK free from the EU'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...millions.htmll
Tory blow as Tycoon Paul Sykes gives Ukip millions
Self-made businessman promises to do “whatever it takes” to help Ukip top the polls in May
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Originally Posted by Telegraph
The UK Independence Party will receive a multi-million pound boost before next year’s European elections after winning support from one of Britain’s wealthiest businessmen.
Paul Sykes, a self-made tycoon and veteran of the campaign to keep the pound 15 years ago, has promised to do “whatever it takes” to help Ukip top the polls in May.
His move deals a big blow to the Conservatives as they fight to contain Nigel Farage’s party.
Mr Sykes supported the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and Michael Howard, but has backed Ukip in the past, giving the party £1.5 million in 2004.
His latest investment in the party is expected to run into several millions. He told the Telegraph that he wanted to finance Ukip’s efforts to pull Britain out of the EU.
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Originally Posted by Telegraph
“It is time to tell the truth and let the people decide … I want this country to get back to becoming a self-governing nation,” he said.
“That is what I am in it for. I am not going to sit here and do nothing. It’s my final thing this, it’s my Waterloo.”
Mr Farage’s party currently has 13 seats in the European Parliament after winning around 16.5 per cent of the vote in 2009, pushing Labour into third place. Pollsters believe Ukip would need to secure about 27 per cent in the elections expected on May 22 to overtake the Tories as the largest UK party in the European Parliament.
Such an outcome would send shock-waves through Westminster and especially through the Conservative Party, which has seen many activists defect to Ukip in recent months.
David Cameron’s promise of a referendum on a renegotiated EU settlement by 2017 has not stemmed the flow of support to Ukip, with many Tory Euro-sceptics unpersuaded that he can deliver a new deal for Britain.
A key development will be the removal of barriers to Romanian and Bulgarian citizens working in Britain from Jan 1. Mr Sykes, who spent an estimated £6 million campaigning against the UK joining the single currency with Sir James Goldsmith in the Nineties, has commissioned a poll showing that 74 per cent of the public are opposed to the free movement of labour from the two countries. Just 15 per cent said they were in favour.
“As a nation state, Britain is drinking in the last chance saloon,” said Mr Sykes, who in a 2010 Rich List was estimated to be worth £650 million.
“Our failure to exert any control over our border with the 27 other members of the EU means that we are on the brink of abolishing ourselves as an independent country and consigning 1,000 years of nationhood to the dustbin of history.”
He added: “I have nothing against people from Romania and Bulgaria, but given the four million immigrants we have absorbed since 1997, and given the prospect that the end of transitional controls on two of the poorest countries on the continent will trigger another wave of mass immigration … you have to drawn the line somewhere.”
Mr Sykes said he was not a Ukip member and had no party political motivation behind his decision to provide the party with funds.
“I am in this to give people a say about their future,” he said.
“We are going to roll some guns out … every person in Britain will get to know a lot more from our campaign than they have ever got to know from all the other campaigns put together.”
Mr Farage said: “I have worked with Paul and been close to him over many years and I have never seen him so determined as he is today. I have said for a long time now that I wanted to cause an earthquake on May 22 next year, and with people like Paul Sykes working with us that makes it more likely.”
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday defended freedom of movement within the EU. “Hundreds of thousands of British people benefit by going to live and work abroad elsewhere in the European Union. This is a two-way thing,” he told the BBC.
He said he understood concerns about the lifting of restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians, but insisted that there would be no repeat of 2004, when Britain opened its borders to Poles and other eastern Europeans, prompting hundreds of thousands to come to the UK.
I wouldn't of posted this if it wasn't the Telegraph frontpage, but considering it's estimated to be in the several millions it's pretty big news. It was after all the likes of Sykes, Sir Jimmy Goldsmith and Business for Sterling who helped keep us out of the Euro back in 2000 when the BBC and all the major parties wanted us to join. It was a miracle they pulled it off, but thank heavens they did.
As for Clegg at the end of the piece... what a numpty.
The full interview can be found here and is well worth a read: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...om-the-EU.html
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Originally Posted by Paul Sykes interview, Telegraph
“It’s hard to believe that it is 40 years since we had a referendum on whether to go into what was a Common Market,” he says. “It is now almost a common country. How have they managed to achieve that without a single direct vote by the British public? They have attempted to create a United States of Europe. We have never had a chance of stopping it or voting for or against it.
“We have lost our self-government, we have lost the ability to become efficient on tax and spend; we have lost our ability to control our economy even though we are not in the euro. It even costs us £19 billion a year to be a member of this thing. Our economy could be more efficient outside the EU.”
The battle for Britain is on.
Thoughts?
