BBC chairman Richard Sharp’s position is “untenable,” Labour insisted today after MPs found that he had made “significant errors of judgement” when acting as a go-between on a loan for disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell argued that Mr Sharp’s help, offered when the former Tory donor was applying to the government for the post in early 2021, “throws into serious doubt the impartiality and independence that is so fundamental to trust in the BBC.”
In a highly critical report published today, the digital, culture, media and sport committee, which interviewed Mr Sharp last week, said that he had not supplied the “full facts” when it was considering his suitability for the BBC role.
The former banker’s “failure to disclose his actions constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals applying for such public appointments,” the cross-party panel of MPs added.
“Mr Sharp should consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC and the public appointments process.”
The fallout follows reports in the Sunday Times last month that businessman Sam Blyth, a distant cousin of Mr Johnson and a friend of Mr Sharp, had reportedly raised the idea of acting as guarantor of an £800,000 loan to the then Tory leader in 2020.
Mr Sharp told MPs last week that he did not help arrange this guarantee or give Mr Johnson financial advice, but he admitted meeting Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in December 2020 to obtain permission to pass on Mr Blyth’s details.
The 67-year-old claimed that, during the discussion held just weeks before he was announced as the government’s preferred candidate to chair the BBC, he told Mr Case that he would have “no further participation” in the loan arrangement after applying for the post at the broadcaster.
The report said that Mr Sharp had recognised the need to be “open and transparent” with the head of the Civil Service, but he had “failed to apply the same standards of openness and candour in his decision not to divulge this information during the BBC interview process.”
Mr Sharp’s spokesperson offered his apologies to the committee, saying: “He believed he had dealt with the issue by proactively briefing the Cabinet Secretary.”
Both the BBC and the watchdog that oversees public appointments are conducting reviews into the process.
