Paul Sykes (businessman)
| Paul Sykes | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 May 1943 (age 73) Barnsley, England |
| Occupation | Businessman, philanthropist |
Paul Sykes (born 30 May 1943) is an English businessman, political donor, and philanthropist. He is a noted opponent of the European Union and a donor of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He previously supported the Conservative Party, but left because of the party's support of the Maastricht Treaty.
Born in Barnsley, 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 for fishing junks to the Far East. He later moved into bus, coach and truck dealing in the North. Sykes then moved into Property, developing industrial, office and warehouse properties first in London Docklands and then in the North including Wakefield, Salford, Leeds, Rotherham and ultimately founded the Meadowhall shopping complex in Sheffield, which was at the time was Britain's largest ever retail shopping mall. In 1999 Sykes sold Meadow Hall for £1.17 billion. 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.
In 2015, his wealth was estimated at some £690 million.
Sykes started in politics in 1975, and was chairman of Barnsley Conservative Party. he served on the Yorkshire Conservative Regional Council for many years, when the Conservative Party was led by Margaret Thatcher.
Sykes left the Conservative Party in 1991 in a dispute with John Major over the Maastricht Treaty. Sykes is estimated to have donated £8 million opposing the Euro and to Eurosceptic campaigns.
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