Boris Johnson told to stop asking Richard Sharp for financial advice days before he was made BBC chair – reports
Boris Johnson was reportedly told to stop asking Richard Sharp for “advice” about his “personal financial matters” just days before he was announced as the new BBC chairman.
Mr Johnson, who was prime minister at the time, was warned by officials to stop discussing his financial arrangements with Mr Sharp on 22 December 2020, according to The Sunday Times.
Mr Sharp was due to be announced as BBC chair on 6 January 2021.
The former banker has been facing calls to stand down as BBC chairman after it emerged that in late 2020 he had introduced Sam Blyth to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to discuss whether Mr Blyth, a distant cousin of Mr Johnson whom Mr Sharp has known for more than 40 years, could act as a guarantor for a loan facility for the prime minister.
Mr Sharp previously said that he will remain in place, with the BBC chairman due to be grilled by MPs on the controversy next month.
A spokesperson for the former prime minister said Mr Sharp has “never given any financial advice to Boris Johnson, nor has Mr Johnson sought any financial advice from him”.
They added: “Neither Mr Johnson nor anyone acting on his behalf was ever aware that Sam Blyth was being considered for any role at the British Council, nor did Mr Johnson have any discussions with Sam Blyth or anyone else about any such role.
“Neither Mr Johnson nor anyone acting on his behalf spoke to anyone in the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) regarding Mr Blyth for any public appointment.”
The spokesperson said that “throughout this process, as the material The Sunday Times has obtained demonstrates, Mr Johnson followed advice and took the necessary steps to ensure probity. All declarations were made properly”.
The newspaper, citing a leaked Cabinet Office memo, said advice was issued by top civil servant Mr Case after Mr Johnson and Mr Sharp sought out advice on accepting the £800,000 loan from Mr Blyth.
Mr Johnson reportedly secured the loan in February 2021.
The paper quotes advice issued by Mr 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.”
Public appointments commissioner William Shawcross has already said that he plans to investigate Mr Sharp’s appointment as BBC chairman, following the first set of reports last week.
Read more:
BBC chairman Richard Sharp confident he was ‘appointed on merit’ after Boris Johnson loan row
Mr Sharp told BBC News last week he was “comfortable” with the way the process had been carried out.
The paper also reports that Mr Blyth had appeared on a Foreign Office list of four recommended candidates during the search for the chief executive of the British Council, with his family ties to Mr Johnson not revealed to senior figures at the council.
Mr Blyth told the paper he ruled himself out on 7 December 2020 and did not formally apply.
“I believe my name may have been suggested by civil servants who were trying to identify potential candidates at the search stage of the appointment process,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Johnson: Loan claims ‘complete nonsense’
Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain called on the government to publish Mr Johnson’s internal register of interests.
She said: “How can Johnson claim that Richard Sharp knew nothing of his personal finances when he was explicitly told by officials to stop asking for his financial advice?
“The public are sick of these endless lies and Conservative cover-ups. This government must come clean and publish all relevant documents, including Boris Johnson’s internal register of interests, so we can get to the bottom of this.”
Mr Sharp said last week that “having had a discussion with the cabinet secretary about avoiding conflict, and the perception of conflict, I felt comfortable and I still feel there was no conflict because at that stage what I was seeking to do was ensure that the process was followed exactly by the book, and that the process hadn’t started, of any kind, in terms of any support that Sam (Blyth) was going to provide to the prime minister”.
“I had clarified and agreed with the cabinet secretary, both of us had the judgment that I’d avoided a conflict or a perception of conflict.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We do not comment on leaks.”
World
Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food
Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.
The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.
It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.
“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump envoy Witkoff visits Gaza
Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.
Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.
“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.
“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”
Hamas releases hostage video
It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Video released of Israeli hostage
Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.
His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.
More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire
Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.
Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.
In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.
Read more:
Doctor says colleague ‘followed and killed by drone’
‘Little confidence’ in US officials seeing full picture
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.
According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.
Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.
It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.
The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.
The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.
She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.
“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.
“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”
She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.
Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.
Anastasiya Samsonova at the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort in North Korea. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.
That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.
“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.
“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”
Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae on the beach in Wonsan at the resort’s opening. Pic: KCNA/Reuters
The North Korean watching a slide at the resort. Pic: KCNA/Reuters
But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?
I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.
“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.
“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”
Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.
Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.
And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.
But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?
The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.
Pic: Danil Biryukov / DVHAB.RU
“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.
“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”
She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.
‘There is a huge growing demand among young people,’ Irina Kobeleva says
Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.
“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.
“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”
Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.
“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump’s tariffs are back – here’s who is in his sights this time
Coca-Cola and Brewdog beer on Russian shelves despite sanctions
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.
“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.
It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.
At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.
World
US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead
A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.
Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.
Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.
Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.
However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.
Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.
No details have been given on how they were murdered.
Vehicles are seen being taken in Lake County, Tennessee on 30 July, near the area where four family members were found dead. Pic: WHBQ/AP
Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.
The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.
“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.
“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”
Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.
A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.
Read more US news:
Tesla ordered to pay $243m over crash
Trump orders nuclear subs closer to Russia
The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.
Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.
He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.
Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike