Richard Sharp, the BBC chair, has revealed he personally informed Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak that he wanted the job before he applied, as he underwent a sometimes brutal interrogation from MPs over alleged conflicts of interest.
Sharp, who was accused of exemplifying a “pals appointing pals” establishment culture, accepted he played a role in helping a wealthy businessman assist Johnson with his finances, but insisted his role was to “ensure due process was followed”.
Appearing before the culture, media and sport committee, Sharp declined several times to apologise for not telling a pre-appointment hearing by the same committee about his role in facilitating a reported £800,000 loan facility for Johnson, who was ultimately responsible for selecting him.
Sharp said only that he regretted “the situation”, and “the distraction”, and that he did not wish it to overshadow the work of the BBC.
Accused by Labour MP Kevin Brennan of a “monumental failure of judgment” in failing to disclose the information, Sharp denied doing so because he assumed the information would simply never come to light.
The former banker was summoned by the committee after it emerged that shortly before applying for the BBC role he had assisted his friend Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman who is also a distant cousin of Johnson, who wanted to financially assist the prime minister.
Sharp explained that Blyth was at a private dinner at his house in September 2020 when the Canadian said he had read reports that Johnson was in “some difficulties” and that he wanted to help. Sharp said he warned his friend about the ethical complexities of this.
Sharp was at the time working in Downing Street on Covid projects, and told both Johnson and Sunak of his aim to be BBC chair. He told the committee: “I communicated to the prime minister and to the chancellor that I wished to apply and submitted my application in November.”
He went on: “Towards the end of November I received a call from Mr Blyth saying that he was interested in exploring with the Cabinet Office what possibly he could do just to help his cousin.”
Since he was working in the same office building as Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, Sharp said, he raised this suggestion with Case, also mentioning that he was in the running to be BBC chair.
Under intense questioning, Sharp insisted that he believed this conversation with Case, at which no one else was present, cleared him of any perceived conflict of interest over the BBC application, which is why he never mentioned it at the hearing.
“My involvement was to ensure due process was followed. I was not party to any subsequent events that took place. I gave no financial advice to prime minister,” he said.
“Having had the meeting with Mr Case on this particular issue, and having discussed the BBC application and that Mr Case put in place issues to ensure there was no conflict or perception of conflict, I did not raise it with this committee,” Sharp said.
“I’d raised the issue of my BBC application specifically with [Case]. He had agreed that to avoid a conflict, or any appearance of a conflict, I should have nothing further to do with the matter. At that stage any support that Mr Blyth was going to support was entirely hypothetical. I took comfort from that discussion.”
One committee member, the SNP’s John Nicolson, told Sharp the overall impression was “all a bit banana republic”. Nicolson said: “I think it leaves the impression that so much of this is deeply establishment. It’s pals appointing pals, donating money to pals.”
Asked if he understood how angry BBC staff were, Sharp said: “I regret the distraction this has caused, there’s no doubt about that. And certainly I’m disturbed by the fact that all the tremendous things the BBC does should in some way overshadowed by this.”
Sharp said he had since given the issue of Blyth’s attempt to bail out Johnson, and his role in it, no consideration, saying: “Frankly, I hadn’t thought about it at all until a couple of weeks ago, when I got called by a journalist.”
William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, was tasked with examining how Sharp became BBC chair. However, he has since had to recuse himself from the process, said the pair had met several times.
