BBC Chairman Made ‘Significant Errors of Judgement’ Over Boris Johnson’s Loan, MPs Say

Undated file photos of BBC Chairman Richard Sharp (L) and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (House of Commons/PA Media)

BBC Chair Richard Sharp made “significant errors of judgement” when failing to declare his role in the facilitation of a loan to the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Parliamentary committee has said.

Sharp is under investigation over potential conflicts of interests after allegations emerged that he had helped secure an £800,000 ($987,000) loan guarantee for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The former Goldman Sachs banker was named as the preferred candidate for the BBC job in January 2021 and the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) Committee of the House of Commons backed his appointment.

But in a strongly-worded report published on Feb. 12, the committee said that Sharp did not declare to MPs his role in facilitating the loan when he was applying for the job of BBC chairman.

The committee said his omissions “constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals” applying for prominent public appointments.

“Richard Sharp’s decisions, firstly to become involved in the facilitation of a loan to the then-prime minister while at the same time applying for a job that was in that same person’s gift, and then to fail to disclose this material relationship, were significant errors of judgment, which undermine confidence in the public appointments process and could deter qualified individuals from applying for such posts,” the MPs said.

The committee concluded: “Mr. Sharp should consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC, and the public appointments process.”

Pedestrians walk past a BBC logo at Broadcasting House in London, Jan. 29, 2020. (Reuters/Henry Nicholls/File Photo)

Loan Allegations

The Sunday Times reported on Jan. 22 that Sharp, a Tory donor and BBC chair candidate at the time, was involved in talks about financing Johnson when the then-prime minister found himself in financial difficulty in late 2020, shortly before Sharp was appointed chair of the public broadcaster.

According to the report, Sharp got involved in November 2020 after his friend Sam Blyth, a multi-millionaire Canadian businessman who is also a distant cousin of Johnson, floated the idea of acting as Johnson’s guarantor.

The report said Sharp in December 2020 introduced Blyth to Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service Simon Case and spoke to the prime minister.

In a follow-up report published on Jan. 29, The Sunday Times alleged that Johnson was warned by officials on Dec. 22, 2020, to stop discussing his financial arrangements with Sharp, who was due to be named for the BBC role in the following month.

The paper quoted advice issued by Case, which stated, “Given the imminent announcement of Richard Sharp as the new BBC chair, it is important that you no longer ask his advice about your personal financial matters.”

‘Highly Unsatisfactory’

Sharp has insisted that he did not arrange the loan and did not give Johnson any financial advice, but admitted introducing Blyth to the Cabinet Office.

A spokesman for the former prime minister also said Sharp has “never given any financial advice to Boris Johnson, nor has Mr. Johnson sought any financial advice from him.”

But the DCMS committee said there was an “unresolved issue” as to why Case believed Sharp had been giving financial advice to Johnson.

“Mr. Sharp denied that he had ever given financial advice to the then-prime minister but was unable to account for the decision by the Cabinet Office to issue a note to the prime minister advising him not to seek further financial advice from Mr. Sharp given his impending appointment as chair of the BBC,” said the MPs, who called on the Cabinet Office to “clear up the confusion.”

Acting chairman of the DCMS Committee Damian Green said: “The public appointments process can only work effectively if everyone is open and transparent, yet Richard Sharp chose not to tell either the appointment panel or our committee about his involvement in the facilitation of a loan to Boris Johnson.

“Such a significant error of judgment meant we were not in the full possession of the facts when we were required to rule on his suitability for the role of BBC chair.”

‘Cronyism’

A spokesman for Sharp said the BBC chairman “apologises” for failing to inform the committee of the loan.

But he said: “Mr. Sharp believed he had dealt with the issue by proactively briefing the Cabinet Secretary that he was applying for the role of BBC chair, and therefore beyond connecting Mr. Blyth with Mr. Case, he recused himself from the matter.

“At that meeting, and subsequently, it was not suggested by the Cabinet Office that the act of connecting Mr. Blyth with Mr. Case was something that should be declared, and it was explicitly agreed that by not being party to the matter going forward he would be excluded from any conflict.”

Labour’s shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said: “This is a damming report which makes the BBC chair’s position increasingly untenable because it throws into serious doubt the impartiality and independence that is so fundamental to trust in the BBC.

“The Conservatives’ cronyism is dragging down the BBC when we should be building it up as a cornerstone of our creative economy.”

PA Media contributed to this report.