Richard Sharp ‘must fall on his sword and resign as BBC chairman’
Richard Sharp is facing growing calls to “fall on his sword” and resign as BBC chairman over the cronyism row caused by him helping Boris Johnson secure an £800,000 loan facility.
Rishi Sunak was standing by the embattled former banker despite a highly-critical cross-party report by MPs finding Mr Sharp chairman made “significant errors of judgment”.
Veteran broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby warned that Mr Sharp acting as a go-between shortly before being put forward for the role was causing a “great deal of damage for the BBC”.
He told BBC Newsnight: “I have no doubt he is an honourable man, no reason do I have to doubt that.
“But what he should do honourably is to fall on his sword and say’ in the interest of the BBC which I care about I don’t want this to go on and on and on, I shall stand aside’.”
Plum job
Former journalist Baroness Wheatcroft, who sits on the Lords Communications and Digital Committee, added her voice to the demands for Mr Sharp to resign from the “plum job”.
“Mr Sharp may be a very honourable man but there’s no getting away from the fact he helped to organise an £800,000 loan that would get the prime minister out of financial trouble, he did him a favour just when he wanted the prime minister to give him the top job at the BBC,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Even if Mr Sharp behaved absolutely correctly, it doesn’t look right, it doesn’t smell right, and it doesn’t feel right for the BBC to have a chairman who is now being questioned about his judgment.
“What the BBC needs in a chairman is impeccable judgment.”
The new calls came after a report from the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said Mr Sharp failed to declare to MPs his role in facilitating the arrangement when he was applying for the job.
The MPs said his actions “constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals” applying for prominent public appointments.
Mr Sunak said on Monday he will await the outcome of the inquiry ordered by the Commissioner for Public Appointments despite calls from Labour for Mr Sharp to go.
Mr Sharp has apologised for introducing his friend Sam Blyth, a cousin of Mr Johnson who wanted to help the then-prime minister with his financial troubles, to the Cabinet Office.
Downing Street said Mr Sunak supports Mr Sharp in the role, and was “confident” in the “process” that led to his appointment.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
The last dozen years have been one long series of grievous errors of judgement by successive Tory administrations and the new PM is firmly of that tradition…
What is the Senedd going to do about China ! Rishi will have his fingers crossed when he reads China the riot act… ‘Infosys China’ are rated in the top ten in China by the China Council for International Investment, we are talking millions going to his wife. If ever a man (Fat Shanks eg) is compromised to the point of doing the decent thing and falling on his own sword… An ermine collared mafia have installed an international gang of white collared ‘made’ men and women to oversee the impoverishment of the herd. And as was said on here… Read more »
BBC office in India raided by tax inspectors in retaliation for Modi Documetary.
The Chair of the BBC is a former boss of Rishi, whose wife’s eye watering income in part comes from the Ukraine War involvement of her family’s vast trade between Modi’s India and his partner in trade Putin…
Russia is Putin’s war machine, the two are inextricable…
So is the continuing deceit and corruption of the Tories under this Sunak Government…
It seems that no matter how high up you are in the pecking order of life, it is still impossible to continue in your cushy position before or after you have been thrown under a bus called ‘Boris’.
Falling on his sword ? I’d settle for the pompous cnut falling off his high horse. The stink of entitlement is vomit inducing.