Rishi Sunak used to work for Richard Sharp at Goldman Sachs. He brought him into government as an adviser during the pandemic. And on Friday he formally accepted his resignation as BBC chair.
Given the pair’s long relationship, Sharp’s resignation after failing to declare his role in facilitating an £800,000 loan for the former prime minister Boris Johnson might be expected to cause a political problem for the prime minister.
Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, sought to highlight that on Friday, saying: “Instead of doing what’s best for the country the prime minister was more interested in defending his old banking boss. The prime minister should have sacked him weeks ago. Instead it took this investigation, called by Labour, to make him resign.”
Many senior Conservatives believe, however, that Sharp’s resignation actually provides Sunak with an opportunity to put his own stamp on the BBC and emphasise the contrast with his predecessor’s style of government.
A Conservative MP said: “Sunak might have got Sharp into government, but he wasn’t involved in appointing him. The blowback should be minimal.”
Joe Twyman, the co-founder of the public opinion consultancy Deltapoll, said: “The fact that this appointment was made under Boris Johnson and his resignation is about Boris Johnson makes this relatively easy to deflect as something from the past.”
Twyman added that while the Tory party had been hurt by repeated allegations of sleaze, especially during the Johnson years, voters were not yet as angry about the scandals as they had been in the late 1990s, when the issue contributed to bringing down John Major’s government. “The Tories will be seen as sleazy, but that is just at a general base level, rather than relating to anything particularly recent,” he said.
In fact, some believe Sharp’s resignation could give Sunak a political boost, given it is another dent in the reputation of Johnson, who remains his most likely rival as Tory leader.
“Sunak and Sharp might be close, but anything which harms Boris has got to be seen favourably in No 10 right now,” said one senior Tory.
Sunak himself seemed to have been caught off-guard by Sharp’s resignation on Friday morning. Speaking from the Scottish Conservative conference, the prime minister told reporters: “I haven’t actually seen the report because I’ve been here obviously talking to our members and all of you and others.”
He added: “There’s an appointments process that happens for those appointments. I’m not going to prejudge that.”
Sources in No 10 said the prime minister had not begun to think seriously about Sharp’s successor. But many in the party believe he is unlikely to appoint someone either as a political favour or to tilt the BBC’s coverage further to the right.
Ed Vaizey, a Tory peer and former culture minister, told the BBC’s World at One: “Rishi Sunak has brought back grown-up government and knowing Rishi Sunak … I suspect he’s not the sort of person who is interested in handing out favours, I think he wants the best candidates for these kinds of roles.”
He added: “[Sunak] will make it very clear this will be a proper process, [ministers] will be very open-minded about how who should apply and will look at the candidates genuinely as to who has the best ability to be chair of the BBC.”
Sir Peter Riddell, a former public appointments commissioner, urged Sunak not to try to discourage some applicants to apply by leaking the name of Sharp’s chosen successor in advance. He said on Friday that media reports about Johnson’s preferred candidate as BBC chair had caused a “chilling effect” during Sharp’s appointment.
Damian Green, the acting chair of the cross-party culture, media and sport committee, said: “The government must now ensure that it recruits a new chair for the BBC who can demonstrate the integrity and impartiality needed for this role.”
He called on future candidates to take their pre-appointment hearings in front of the committee more seriously than has been the case in the past.
