BBC chairman resigns after row over loan deal for former UK PM Boris Johnson

BBC chairman Richard Sharp resigned on Friday (April 28) after a report found he broke the rules by failing to disclose the role he played in helping former British prime minister Boris Johnson secure an 800,000-pounds loan.

The 67-year-old former Goldman Sachs banker, who has been the chairman of the UK taxpayer-funded licence fee-backed British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), said the investigation found he had breached the governance code for public appointments.

The independent review, led by barrister Adam Heppinstall, looked at Sharp’s appointment and his involvement in facilitating an 800,000-pound loan guarantee for Johnson – just weeks before the former prime minister appointed him.

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“Mr Heppinstall’s view is that while I did breach the governance code for public appointments, he states that a breach does not necessarily invalidate an appointment, Sharp said in a statement.

“Indeed, I have always maintained the breach was inadvertent and not material, which the facts he lays out substantiate Nevertheless, I have decided that it is right to prioritise the interests of the BBC. I feel that this matter may well be a distraction from the Corporation’s good work were I to remain in post until the end of my term. I have therefore this morning resigned as BBC Chair to the Secretary of State, and to the Board,” he said.

“To chair this incredible organisation has been an honour,” he added.

Heppinstall was appointed by the UK’s Commissioner of Public Appointments to investigate claims which appeared in The Sunday Times newspaper.

Sharp said the report finds he did not play “any part whatsoever in the facilitation, arrangement, or financing of a loan for the former Prime Minister”.

But he said with hindsight he should have disclosed his role in setting up a meeting between UK Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and Sam Blyth a businessman who was offering the then Prime Minister financial help to the appointments panel during the scrutiny process ahead of him taking up the senior role at the 100-year-old public broadcaster.

He admitted not doing so was an “oversight” and apologised for it.

Sharp has said he will remain in his post until a replacement is found, which is likely to be until June.

The BBC chairman is a post filled on the recommendation of the government. The broadcaster’s neutrality had come under severe scrutiny over revelations that Sharp a donor to the governing Conservative Party had been involved in the arrangement of a loan for Johnson in 2021.

Sharp also happens to be British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s former boss during his days in the private sector.

Sunak has previously declined to be drawn into the controversy, saying: “Richard Sharp went through an independent appointments process at the time that I had nothing to do with he was appointed before I was prime minister.

Reacting to the BBC Chairman’s resignation on Friday, Sunak said he has not seen the report into Sharp and did not guarantee a non-political figure would replace him.

Speaking to reporters in Glasgow, Sunak said: “There’s an appointments process that happens for those appointments. I’m not going to prejudge that.”

Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, said Sharp had made a “significant contribution to the transformation and success of the BBC”.