Afternoon summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s main events:
The BBC chair Richard Sharp stood down after a report found he had breached the rules on public appointments. Sharp, who told Boris Johnson he wanted the job and whom the former prime minister backed, failed to declare his connection to a secret £800,000 loan made to Johnson.
There were calls to investigate Johnson himself over the matter. The report’s author was careful to stress that looking into the former prime minister’s role was not within his remit. That led the former commissioner for public appointments Sir Peter Riddel to call for further investigation, claiming Johnson “himself was conflicted” in the process.
The prime minister Rishi Sunak refused to rule out the appointment of another Tory donor to replace Sharp at the BBC. Asked if he could make the pledge, he said: “There’s an appointments process that happens for those appointments. I’m not going to prejudge that.”
A major health union accepted the government’s improved pay offer for NHS staff. GMB members working in the NHS in England voted by 56% to 44% to accept the deal that all 12 health unions hammered out last month with the health secretary, Steve Barclay. Unite members rejected the deal.
The ultra-conservative US presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis was hosted in the UK by the foreign secretary James Cleverly. The Florida governor is seeking to burnish his credentials ahead of a possible run against Donald Trump to be the Republican choice in the race for the White House.
We reported earlier on No 10’s attempts to keep journalists out of a selective press briefing with the prime minister (see 12.44pm).
Our Scotland editor, Severin Carrell, reports that the Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, has condemned the spectacle, saying:
It was unnecessary. It shouldn’t have happened… I’ll be making the strongest possible representations to No 10 about it.
I’m acutely aware of how it looks and how it’s wrong [and] I can only act on my behalf and that’s what I’m gonna take every single one of your questions this afternoon.
@Douglas4Moray condemns No 10 press control debacle: “It was unnecessary. It shouldn't have happened… I’ll be making the strongest possible representations to No 10 about it” #SCC23 @10DowningStreet @RishiSunak
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) April 28, 2023
Ross: “I'm acutely aware of how it looks and how it's wrong [and] I can only act on my behalf and that's what I'm gonna take every single one of your questions this afternoon.”
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) April 28, 2023
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