Richard Sharp, the BBC’s beleaguered chairman, has resigned after a report said he had breached appointment rules by failing to fully uncover his role in a loan to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Sharp was under pressure for months to quit and caused serious headaches for the broadcaster after it emerged that he had helped Johnson – who was involved in his selection process – access a loan reportedly worth around $1 million. This story would pick up steam after the BBC settled the impartiality dispute Match of the day presenter Gary Lineker, when the BBC’s connections to the government were questioned, particularly around Sharp, a former banker who had worked with current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Goldman Sachs and previously donated more than £400,000 ($486,000) to the Conservative Party donated.
The chairman’s resignation comes a month after former BBC director-general John Birt claimed his appointment should not have stood because he was an “unsuitable candidate” in a “fatally flawed” process.
In a statement, Sharp said the lawyer leading the investigation into his appointment had found that “while I violated the Code of Governance for Public Appointments, he argues that a violation does not necessarily invalidate an appointment,” adding that he had always maintained that “the infringement was unintentional and not material.”
However, he said he was stepping down to “put the BBC’s interests first”.
Sharp will remain as chairman until the end of June, when the process to name his success will begin.
More to come…
