BBC chief quits over Boris Johnson loan

The BBC chairman on Friday announced his resignation after his participation in a loan for then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised questions about the broadcaster’s vaunted impartiality.

The British Conservative government has long been accused of trying to silence the publicly funded BBC, and Johnson’s appointment of Richard Sharpe, a wealthy former party sponsor, was at the time denounced by opposition parties.

It was only later revealed that Sharpe, former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s former boss at investment bank Goldman Sachs, acted as an intermediary to help Johnson secure an £800,000 ($1 million) loan.

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Sharp denied any wrongdoing, but resigned after the publication of an independent inquiry into his appointment.

He said he was resigning so as not to “detract attention from the good work of the Corporation.”

However, Sharpe’s close past ties to the Conservatives had already served as a distracting controversy for both the broadcaster and the government.

BBC pendants

Those ties were outraged by critics last month when the BBC suspended former English star Gary Lineker from its flagship football show.

Lineker on Twitter accused the Sunak government of using Nazi-era rhetoric to promote its tough immigration policies.

The Sharp-led board hurriedly reinstated Lineker after other presenters refused to work, leading to chaos in the BBC’s TV and radio sports schedule.

Culture Minister Lucy Fraser thanked Sharpe for his service as the government launched a delicate hunt for the successor to one of Britain’s most senior positions when he steps down at the end of June.

Sunak has already had to look for a new vice prime minister after Dominic Raab was ousted last Friday after another investigation found him guilty of bullying civil servants.

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Lineker intervened again, stating that the government should not choose the chairman of the BBC. “Not now and never,” he tweeted.

But Sunak refused to rule out yet another political appointee, telling reporters that he would not “preempt” the hiring process and that he was “focused on delivering value to the British people.”

– “Lost dressing room” –

The leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, said that the Conservatives were “trampling” the BBC.

“Everything that conservative politicians touch turns into a mess. They are not fit to run our great country,” he said ahead of local elections in the UK next Thursday.

A senior lawyer’s investigation found that Sharp “failed to disclose potential perceived conflicts of interest” to a committee of MPs who reviewed his nomination by Johnson in early 2021.

“There is a risk that Mr. Sharp was recommended for appointment because he helped … the former prime minister in a private financial matter,” said lawyer Adam Heppustanov.

In February, the same committee of deputies accused Sharpe of “significant errors in judgment” for not disclosing his involvement in the loan.

While he was being considered for a job with the BBC, Sharpe put Johnson in touch with a distant relative of the prime minister in late 2020, who provided him with a loan.

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Sharp denies getting the job in exchange for helping a cash-strapped Johnson.

On Friday, he said any breach of rules governing conflicts of interest among top officials was “unintentional and not material” to his BBC appointment.

“However, I have decided that it is right to give priority to the interests of the BBC,” he said in a statement.

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said goodbye to Sharpe.

“He lost his dressing room, he lost the respect of high-ranking officials in the broadcasting industry and tarnished the reputation of the BBC,” she said.