As UKIP leader Nigel Farage ended a typically rousing speech on his nationwide ‘common-sense tour’, the applause among the 300-strong pinstripe-and-pearls audience reverberated around the Georgian hotel in Yorkshire.
The loudest cheers came from a slightly-built man with mousy hair in the fourth row of the conference room in the White Hart Hotel in Harrogate.
Farage had good reason to be pleased with this individual’s enthusiastic reaction. For although unknown to most of the audience, the man was Paul Sykes, one of Britain’s richest businessmen who has, over the years, ploughed £6million into the Eurosceptic cause.
Sykes, 69, is the classic example of a self-made man. The son of a miner, he left school with no qualifications, and set up a business at the age of 18 dismantling old buses and engines which he sold as scrap to the Far East.
He moved into property development and built the Meadowhall shopping complex in Sheffield. His internet firm Planet Online was briefly Britain’s largest internet service provider before he sold it in 1988 for £85million.
Sykes was a Tory until 1991, when he quit the party after John Major signed up to the Maastricht Treaty which handed yet more power from Westminster to Brussels.
He joined UKIP in 2001, contributing £1.5million to the party’s fighting fund for the 2004 European elections.
But it was a love affair that didn’t last – when the party fielded candidates against Eurosceptic Tory MPs in the general election the following year, he returned to the Tories.
Now, the signs are that Sykes, with an estimated fortune of £650million, is flirting with UKIP again. And the Tories fear he’s planning to brandish his cheque book in time for next year’s European elections.
More... Photos with Hitler, Nazi salutes, Jimmy Savile masks and blaming Jews for the Holocaust: UKIP gaffes keep on coming but Nigel Farage says: 'These things happen!' Tebbit tells voters to back UKIP if it means stopping Labour: But Farage is forced on to the back foot over candidate's 'Nazi' salute Cameron says he is ready to introduce legislation on an in-out EU referendum BEFORE the next electionOne of the most celebrated converts to Farage’s party is best-selling children’s author G P Taylor.
The 54-year-old joined the Tories in 1974 and has given thousands of pounds in donations.
Now he’s ready to write cheques to UKIP.
He admits it was hard leaving the Conservatives. ‘I have been a committed supporter all my life. But it’s not the Tory party I used to believe in.
‘I am passionately committed to more grammar schools, having learnt to read only at the age of 14. I visit 100 schools every year encouraging pupils to read and love books. In UKIP we support the extension of grammars – Cameron is implacably opposed.
‘Our candidates are ordinary men and women, unlike the monochrome Tory and Labour career politicians. David plays a stupid game of pretence, saying he is a Eurosceptic, while all the time dragging us deeper into the mire.’
One of the most celebrated converts to Farage's party is best-selling children's author G.P Taylor. The 54-year-old joined the Tories in 1974, but he's now ready to write cheques to UKIPAward-winning entrepreneur Adrian Buckley shares such views. He was a member of the Tory Leaders’ Club which requires a minimum donation of £50,000 a year. Now he is standing for UKIP in today’s county council elections, having given the party £6,000 and planning a further £25,000 donation.
He runs Buckley Jewellery (which exports to more than 50 countries) and has raised more than £2.5million for the Royal British Legion with its bejewelled Buckley Poppy.
He said he met Cameron and tried to discuss Europe. ‘He did not have the answers and was more exercised about who was going to win TV’s X Factor.’
Mr Buckley, 50, who originally joined the Tories in 1977, cited UKIP’s support of grammar schools (‘which offer a route for brighter pupils’) among his reasons for his switch.
‘As for gay marriage, I don’t get it. We have civil partnerships which provide legal protection for same sex couples.
Rising popularity: UKIP leader Nigel Farage believes he is on the verge of a major breakthrough and has seen many Tory supporters switch in favour of his party‘By backing gay marriage, Cameron has alienated every major religious leader and most of his own party. It’s a waste of political capital when there are so many more important things to do.’
He also dismissed Cameron’s ‘belated pledge’ of a referendum on membership of the EU two years after the next election. ‘It’s pointless, as he is going to lose the election.’
Andrew Charalambous, 45, was the Tory candidate in Edmonton, North London, at the last election. As founder of Club4Climate, a global environment organisation and a property developer, he is a stalwart of the local community, having served for 15 years as a special constable in the City of London and is a patron of the Leukaemia Society.
He is another who changed from the Tories to UKIP and is in discussions about the size of his donation to the party.
Andrew Charalambous said: 'I switched allegiance with a heavy heart because UKIP is the only party willing to liberate British people from the chains of the EU'He said: ‘I switched allegiance with a heavy heart because UKIP is the only party willing to liberate British people from the chains of the EU. The Tories have failed to give us the referendum they promised on our EU membership.
‘Immigration has increased significantly since the Coalition came to power in spite of the promises. The result is frontline services in health and housing are being cut, affecting those who need our protection the most: The disabled, the elderly and the seriously ill.
‘On immigration, the Tories no longer have their finger on the pulse of the nation. They are disconnected from ordinary people. In UKIP, we are saying they can’t come in unless they have the right skills set that an employer is seeking.’
Fellow entrepreneur Amjad Bashir, a Tory member for 15 years, is now a donor to UKIP. He has two restaurants in Bradford and Manchester and is disillusioned with David Cameron’s modernising agenda.
‘I was drawn to UKIP by the pledge to cut EU bureaucracy and red tape. As a businessman I have seen so many roads blocked to expansion because of the rules and regulations.’
Gay marriage also worries him. ‘It is a big mistake to meddle in an age-old institution.’ As the son of immigrants, he was able to form his own business in the days when there were plenty of jobs. But things have changed and he says: ‘We now have to seriously restrict immigration to the people who can add value to our country.’
Michael Corby, 68, a Tory stalwart for more than 30 years (who says he has given the Tories ‘a six-figure sum over the years in donations and other resources’) switched to UKIP over the EU.‘To me, the point of being involved in politics is that you do it to make the country a better place in which to work and live.
‘It has become increasingly obvious that while we remain in the EU, the government we vote for in Westminster is unable to do that, as its hands are tied by Brussels. It is also obvious that no party, other than UKIP, seems to realise this.’
