BBC Chair Richard Sharp has resigned after a report found he breached appointment rules by failing to declare his role in the Boris Johnson loan scandal.
In a statement given prior to the release of the long-awaited report, Sharp said the conclusion had found that he had “breached the code for public appointments” and he is resigning “to prioritise the interests of the BBC.”
He defended himself, however, adding that the breach was “inadvertent and not material, which the facts he lays out substantiate.”
Sharp will remain in post until the end of June while the process to appoint his successor took place, which the Board has begun.
The Sunday Times broke the news several months ago that Sharp had helped facilitate an £800,000 ($1M) loan guarantee for Boris Johnson via Johnson’s distant cousin, Sam Blyth, in the weeks before he became BBC Chair. The BBC Chair position is decided upon by the government of the day.
Sharp praised the BBC for being “an incredible organisation which has never mattered more than it does today, at home in the UK and around the world.”
Accepting his resignation, the BBC Board said “we accept and understand Richard’s decision to stand down.”
“We want to put on record our thanks to Richard, who has been a valued and respected colleague, and a very effective Chairman of the BBC,” added a statement, which called him “a person of integrity.”
Sharp has always maintained that he only introduced Johnson to Blyth and reported this to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, but he has been chastized for failing to properly declare the conflict of interest prior to his early 2021 appointment. A DCMS Committee report has already said Sharp made “significant errors of judgement” in his involvement with the loan process. During a combative committee session in February, Sharp repeatedly insisted he knew nothing of Johnson’s affairs and had been forthright in his dealings with Case over the matter.
Today’s report comes following a weeks-long review of the situation by Adam Heppinstall KC, and a separate BBC Board probe into conflicts of interest more generally is also taking place.
The Sharp debacle has come at a difficult time for the BBC, with the Gary Lineker saga breaking out just a few weeks after the Sharp revelations. The Chair was noticeably quiet during the Lineker dispute, which saw Director General Tim Davie taking the majority of the flak.
Max Goldbart
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