British exporters, inward investors and the people they employ all know how damaging exchange rate instability can be.”Kenneth Clarke, the former Tory chancellor, warned yesterday of potential job losses if Britain stayed outside the euro-zone. “If Britain stays out of the single currency for too long, not only will we be weaker politically, but our citizens will be poorer, too,” he told the Britain in Europe group.Nick Herbert, chief executive of the anti-euro Business for Sterling group, responded: “It is ludicrous to say that Britain is ‘losing jobs’ when Britain’s unemployment rate is half that of the eurozone.”. The crisis within the Scottish National Party deepened yesterday after its suspended national treasurer threatened legal action against the party leader, Alex Salmond. The crisis within the Scottish National Party deepened yesterday after its suspended national treasurer threatened legal action against the party leader, Alex Salmond.
Ian Blackford will be replaced by a Lothians list MSP, Kenny MacAskill, until the next meeting of the SNP’s national executive committee on 8 July.Mr Blackford, an international banker based in Edinburgh, lost a vote of no confidence in his stewardship of the party’s finances on Saturday. The party said in a statement: “The national secretary of the Scottish National Party, Mr Stewart Hosie, has suspended Mr Ian Blackford from the office of national treasurer until the next meeting of the Party’s national executive committee on 8 July 2000, for conduct inimical to the interests of the party.”At the next meeting of the NEC, the issue of Mr Blackford’s suspension will be the first item on the agenda.”Mr Blackford will be given the opportunity to address the meeting and to put before it any material that he considersrelevant.”Mr Blackford, a Deutsche Bank executive, was furious with Mr Salmond when the leader proposed the vote in his absence at a weekend meeting of the SNP’s executive.He said: “Before this morning’s action, I had determined to seek an interim interdict to prevent the committee from taking any further action to prevent me carrying out my duties as SNP treasurer. I remain confident that I retain the support of the party, having had my report to the party’s national council endorsed unanimously on the Saturday before the NEC passed its motion.”.

With a personal fortune of £350m, Yorkshire-born Paul Sykes is the kind of man any political party would love to have on its side. With a personal fortune of £350m, Yorkshire-born Paul Sykes is the kind of man any political party would love to have on its side.
The son of a miner, Britain’s 67th richest man left school at 15 before going on to found a scrap metal company. By the age of 24 he was a millionaire and driving a Rolls-Royce.The bulk of his wealth comes from shrewd property developments he made in the 1970s and 1980s, with the Meadowhall shopping complex in Sheffield one of his wisest investments. In the late 1990s, he entered the internet market, setting up Planet Online, the biggest internet provider in the business market, later selling his stake for £50m.In the past few years he has tired of the trappings of wealth, selling off his yachts and private jets and swapping his 17th-century manor house for a small cottage in rural Yorkshire. After stepping down from controlling posts in his large business empire, he announced last year that he wanted to spend more time and money on protecting the environment and wildlife.But the anti-euro cause remains his central, driving passion, a stance that brought him into conflict with the Tories under John Major.

Mr Sykes had been a big donor to the Conservatives, but withdrew his support in protest at Mr Major’s “wait and see” approach on the euro.He stood down as Tory candidate for Barnsley Central, but got his revenge by spending some £2m backing party candidates who campaigned on a strongly Eurosceptic personal manifesto.After the 1997 election, he set up the Democracy Movement and pledged £20m to its mission to “educate and inform” the public about the issue of a single currency. An avowedly non-party political organisation, the group was born out of the merger of the late Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party and Mr Sykes’s own euroinformation campaign.The story of Mr Sykes’ reconciliation with the Tory party is one of steady work by a handful of MPs and party officials dedicated to the anti-euro cause. As recently as February 1999 he declared that he was not interested in returning to the Conservatives. When asked if he would support them again he said: “Definitely not, that’s over.”Nevertheless, Mr Sykes has been assiduously courted by those in the party who realised that his support, both moral and financial, could prove decisive.