Who is BBC chairman Richard Sharp, how does he know Boris Johnson and why is he in trouble?

BBC chairman Richard Sharp is facing calls to quit after MPs found he made “significant errors of judgment” by acting as a go-between for a loan guarantee for Boris Johnson.

A cross-party committee was furious that Mr Sharp failed to declare to MPs his role in facilitating the arrangement when he was applying for the job of BBC chairman and said he should “consider the impact his omissions will have” on trust in the broadcaster.

Mr Sharp did not arrange the loan but admitted 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.

A spokesman for Mr Sharp said he “regrets” not telling MPs about his involvement with Mr Blyth “and apologises”.

Who is Richard Sharp?

Richard Sharp is a former banker with connections at the heart of the political establishment.

His old friend Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman, went to Mr Sharp with an offer to help Boris Johnson as the then-prime minister struggled financially in 2020.

Mr Sharp, by then working as a government adviser during the coronavirus pandemic, was able to put Mr Blyth in touch with Simon Case, the country’s most senior civil servant.

The 67-year-old’s links with the political elite include a time as boss to a young Rishi Sunak during his Goldman Sachs career.

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Mr Sharp – a major Tory Party donor who was on the board of the conservative think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies – described Mr Sunak to a friend as the best young financial analyst he had seen.

Before his stint at Goldman Sachs, which spanned from 1985 to 2007, he worked in both commercial and investment banking for JP Morgan.

Mr Sharp, who read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, is also a former chairman and an emeritus trustee of the Royal Academy.

He acted as an adviser to Mr Sunak during the pandemic and played a key role in the creation of the Government’s £1.57 billion culture recovery fund.

He was also a member of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee from 2013 until 2019.

When did he become chairman of the BBC?

Mr Sharp’s appointment as chairman of the BBC, during one of the most turbulent periods in its history in February 2021, was widely regarded as political.

At the time, the corporation faced scrutiny over equal pay, diversity, free TV licences for the over-75s and competition from streaming services like Netflix.

The millionaire pledged to give his £160,000 annual salary for the role to charity.

During his tenure at the BBC, Mr Sharp has defended the broadcaster on numerous occasions and used his platform to highlight the importance of journalism in speaking “truth to power” while lamenting the threat of disinformation faced by the industry.

Past controversies

In 2021, he denied the controversy over the hiring of Jess Brammar as head of news channels had “tainted” her appointment, after her impartiality was questioned following the emergence of old tweets in which she was critical of Brexit.

He criticised the Government’s two-year freeze of the licence fee, describing it as “disappointing” and saying it will lead to “tougher choices” that will affect viewers.

But he later said the board “welcomes an informed debate” about the future funding of the broadcaster and “nothing should be off the table”.

He also said former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis was “completely wrong” to suggest that “due process wasn’t followed” after she criticised the way the corporation handled her Newsnight speech about Dominic Cummings.

In an apparent reference to former prime minister Theresa May’s former communications director Sir Robbie Gibb, Maitlis said there was an “active agent of the Conservative Party” on the BBC board and that the corporation “sought to pacify” Number 10 after her monologue about the then-chief adviser’s trip to Durham during lockdown.

Mr Sharp told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) that Ms Maitlis’s apparent description of Sir Robbie was “completely wrong” and he was “disappointed” she had made that point.

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