The chairman of the BBC helped Boris Johnson arrange a guarantee on a loan of up to £800,000. Richard Sharp helped the then Prime Minister weeks before Mr Johnson recommended him for the BBC job.
Mr Sharp, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, had submitted his application to become chairman of the BBC and was in the final stages of the job process when he helped Boris Johnson in November and December 2020, according to The Times. He is understood to have helped the Prime Minister organise a deal with Sam Blyth, while having dinner at Mr Blyth's home in west London.
Mr Blyth is a multimillionaire Canadian businessman and a distant cousin of Mr Johnson. He agreed to act as a guarantor on the Prime Minister's £800,000 loan.
It is reported that Sharp acted as the Prime Minister's financial advisor during the deal. Mr Sharp agreed to help the Prime Minister in the first week of December and met Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, at Downing Street.
In late December, the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team wrote a letter to Mr Johnson. It warned the Prime Minister to stop asking for Mr Sharp's financial advice because of the BBC appointment. But by that point, Mr Johnson had already selected Mr Sharp as his preferred candidate.
He was announced as the new BBC chairman on January 6, 2021. The role pays £160,000 a year.
The BBC's chair is appointed by the monarch at the recommendation of the prime minister. They receive advice from an appointment panel of four people.
Mr Sharp did not disclose he had acted as Mr Johnson's guarantor to the panel. He also did not tell the BBC and it did not come up at a pre-appointment hearing in front of a House of Commons select committee in February 2021.
The Government's job application form for the BBC role says applicants cannot be considered if they "fail to declare any conflict of interest".
Mr Johnson did not disclose his links to Mr Sharp in the MPs' register of interests. It was also not mentioned in the register of ministerial interests.
Mr Sharp held the BBC chairman role for a year-and-a-half while Mr Johnson was Prime Minister. He remains in the position now.
Speaking to The Times, Mr Sharp said: “There is not a conflict when I simply connected, at his request, Mr Blyth with the cabinet secretary and had no further involvement whatsoever.”
A spokesman for Johnson told the newspaper: “This is rubbish. Richard Sharp has never given any financial advice to Boris Johnson, nor has Mr Johnson sought any financial advice from him. There has never been any remuneration or compensation to Mr Sharp from Boris Johnson for this or any other service.
“Mr Johnson did indeed have dinner with Mr Sharp, whom he has known for almost 20 years, and with his cousin. So what? Big deal. All Mr Johnson’s financial arrangements have been properly declared and registered on the advice of officials.”
