BBC chairman’s position ‘hanging by a thread’ as report expected on appointment
A report into allegations that BBC Chairman Richard Sharp helped Boris Johnson secure a loan of £800,000 weeks before he was recommended for the role is expected to be published on Friday morning.
The chair of a parliamentary committee that probed Mr Sharp’s appointment said his position is “hanging by a thread”.
The former Conservative party donor was appointed in 2021 when Mr Johnson was in Downing Street.
It later emerged that Mr Sharp had failed to reveal his part in helping arrange a personal loan between the then prime minister and Sam Blyth, a Canadian financier, who is a distant cousin of Mr Johnson.
The commissioner for public appointments launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Sharp’s selection in February, led by barrister Adam Heppinstall KC.
An initial report by MPs concluded that he had made “significant errors of judgment” by failing to declare his links during the appointment process.
Parliament’s culture, media and sport select committee found that Mr Sharp should “consider the impact his omissions will have” on trust in the national broadcaster and that his actions “constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals” applying for prominent public appointments.
On Thursday, the SNP MP and chair of the committee, John Nicolson, told the Commons that Mr Sharp’s “tenure is hanging by a thread”.
Two former director generals of the corporation have indicated that he should step down over the dispute.
Former director-general Lord Birt, who was appointed by John Major in 1992, said: “I don’t think his appointment should stand… There are very substantial issues hanging over his head at the moment that have not been resolved.”
Lord Patten, a Tory peer and ex-minister who chaired the BBC Trust from 2011 to 2014, said: “I’ve tended in life not to go around telling people to resign, but I don’t think that if he were to do so I would write a letter of condolence.”
Mr Nicolson previously said that he had been “deluged with messages from BBC staff saying they don’t see how he can head up the BBC any more”.
Despite reports of disquiet from within the BBC and condemnation from MPs, Mr Sharp remains in post as chairman.
At the parliamentary hearing in February, Mr Sharp accepted that he played a role in Mr Blyth assisting the then PM, but denied any direct involvement in the arrangement of a loan.
Mr Blyth attended a private dinner at Sharp’s home in September 2020, at which it is claimed the Canadian businessman raised reports that Johnson was in “some difficulties” and extended an offer to help.
Mr Sharp insists that he raised the ethical complexities of such a scenario, and says his only involvement was to “ensure due process was followed”.
He was working in Downing Street dealing with Covid projects at the time and said it was around then that he “communicated to the prime minister and to the chancellor that I wished to apply and submitted my application in November”.
He said he informed Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in December 2020 of his application for the job and agreed to have “no further participation” in Johnson’s finances.
