The BBC chairman resigned on Friday after it was revealed that he had concealed a potential conflict of interest about his role in helping to secure a loan for Boris Johnson, who was the British prime minister at the time, more than two years ago.
Since it was discovered that Richard Sharp assisted in setting up the line of credit weeks before he was recommended for the BBC position, the publicly funded national broadcaster has come under political pressure.
Sam Blyth, a successful Canadian businessman, and Johnson’s distant relative, provided the 800,000 pounds ($1 million) line of credit. Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Conservative Party supporter enabled it by setting up a meeting between Blyth and the top civil official of the United Kingdom to consider Blyth’s offer of financial assistance.
Johnson was the British prime minister and the leader of the Conservative Party at the time.
Sharp said that his rule-breaking was “inadvertent” and that he was leaving to “prioritize the interests of the BBC.”
“I feel that this matter may well be a distraction from the corporation’s good work,” he said. “Were I to remain in post until the end of my term,” he said.
Sharp stated that he would continue in his BBC position through the end of June while a replacement is sought.
Senior attorney Adam Heppinstall’s investigation into the incident concluded Sharp “failed to disclose potential perceived conflicts of interest.”
Before he was named chairman in early 2021, the BBC appointments panel was not informed of Sharp’s involvement in the loan guarantee, according to the report.
Heppinstall stated in his assessment that there was a chance that people may believe Mr. Sharp was recommended for the position as a result of helping the former prime minister with a personal financial concern.
If Mr. Sharp had been appointed, “there may very well have been a risk of the perception that he would not be independent of the former prime minister,” he added.
The Conservative government was accused by opposition parties of eroding the BBC’s objectivity.
As a result of the Conservatives’ sleaze and cronyism, “this breach has caused untold damage to the reputation of the BBC and seriously undermined its independence,” Labour Party culture spokeswoman Lucy Powell said.
The loan inquiry is the 100-year-old BBC’s most unsettling incident to date. The BBC is sponsored by a license fee paid by every home with a television, and as such, has a responsibility to be objective in its news coverage.
The public broadcaster is regularly used as a political football, with some conservative government officials accusing it of having a leftist tilt and other liberals accusing it of doing the opposite.
When the BBC’s top sports broadcaster, former England soccer star Gary Lineker, questioned the government’s immigration policies on social media in March, it set off a furor over free speech and political bias.
After other sports presenters, analysts, and Premier League players joined him in a solidarity broadcast boycott of the BBC, Lineker was first suspended and then reinstated.
