BBC Chairman Resigns Over Offer to Facilitate Loan to Boris Johnson
BBC Chairman #BBCChairman
LONDON—The chairman of the BBC, Richard Sharp, quit Friday after an investigation concluded he breached the U.K. government code for public appointments by failing to declare that he offered to facilitate a loan to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while applying for the job at the publicly funded broadcaster.
The decision by Mr. Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, to step down is the latest scandal to wash over the British Broadcasting Corp., which has been buffeted by a series of missteps that critics say has dented its image as an independent, impartial broadcaster and raised questions over whether it has bowed to pressure from the ruling Conservative government.
The resignation comes just one month after a mass walkout at the BBC after a top sports commentator was briefly suspended for criticizing the government’s immigration policy on Twitter.
The report, published by the U.K.’s Commissioner for Public Appointments, said that in 2020 Mr. Sharp told the then-prime minister, Mr. Johnson, that he wished to apply for the position of chair of the BBC’s board. Mr. Sharp also offered to introduce Mr. Johnson to a person who could help with his personal finances. Mr. Sharp failed to disclose this conversation with Mr. Johnson during his interview process for the BBC role, which gave “rise to a potential perceived conflict of interest,” the report concluded. The British prime minister is closely involved in choosing who is named chairman of the BBC.
Mr. Sharp in a statement said the breach “was inadvertent and not material” but that he would step down from the role to “prioritize the interests of the BBC.” Mr. Johnson earlier on Friday declined to comment on the matter. A spokesman for current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the matter was for the BBC. Mr. Sharp will remain in the post until June as the BBC finds a new chair.
The BBC, which is funded by an annual levy on British households that own a television, has striven to offer impartial coverage of all political parties. But earlier in March the BBC sparked one of its biggest crises in years by suspending its top sports commentator, Gary Lineker, for criticizing the U.K. government on Twitter, leading to a staff rebellion and allegations that the state-funded broadcaster had compromised its independence by folding to government pressure.
Mr. Lineker, who fronts the BBC’s “Match of the Day” soccer highlights show, compared the government’s migration policy to 1930s Germany. BBC said it considered Mr. Lineker’s “recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines” and said he “should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”
After a standoff lasting several days, Mr. Lineker was reinstated. The crisis raised questions among politicians and other media watchers about whether the BBC was buckling under political pressure.
The current scandal focuses around the manner in which Mr. Sharp was given chairmanship of the broadcaster. In November 2020, Mr. Sharp, a Conservative Party donor, offered to arrange a meeting between Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman and distant cousin of Mr. Johnson’s, and the U.K.’s top civil servant to discuss the offer to guarantee a credit line of 800,000 pounds, equivalent to $1 million, to the then-prime minister. After going through the interview process, Mr. Sharp was named chairman in February 2021 for a four-year term. Mr. Blyth later told the Guardian newspaper that the loan was for much less than £800,000 and “done on fully commercial terms and fully approved beforehand by the Cabinet Office and ethics.”
The Commissioner for Public Appointments report by lawyer Adam Heppinstall concluded that, “There is a risk of a perception that Mr. Sharp was recommended for appointment because he assisted (to the very limited extent of attempting to make the introduction to the cabinet secretary mentioned above) the former prime minister in a private financial matter.”
Write to Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com