Richard Sharp: BBC chair’s position ‘increasingly untenable’ after helping Boris Johnson secure £800,000 loan, says Labour’s Lisa Nandy
The BBC chairman’s position is becoming “increasingly untenable” after a committee of MPs found he made “significant errors of judgement” by facilitating a loan guarantee for Boris Johnson, a frontbench Labour MP has said.
Lisa Nandy made the remarks on Sky News after it emerged Richard Sharp, who helped Mr Johnson secure an £800,000 loan, failed to declare his role as a go-between for the then-prime minister when applying for the chairman’s job.
The cross-party Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has said in a report that Mr Sharp should “consider the impact his omissions will have” on public trust in the broadcaster.
BBC chairman Richard Sharp is under pressure
The committee also said his actions “constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals” applying for prominent public appointments.
The same committee backed Mr Sharp’s appointment to the chairman’s job in January 2021 but was not aware of his role in facilitating the loan.
Committee report is a ‘really serious development’
Ms Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that the government had “relied on the defence” that the committee had approved the appointment of Mr Sharp as BBC chair.
She continued: “But the committee today is saying that actually, had they known about (the loan), it would have been a very different situation.
“This information was not disclosed to them prior to approving that appointment.”
Speaking about the findings in the report, Ms Nandy said: “It is a really serious development and it makes Richard Sharp’s position look increasingly untenable.”
She added: “I think it’s difficult to see how Richard Sharp could possibly stay in the position that he’s in, given the far reaching implications for the reputation of the BBC and the implications for trust in journalism.”
Mr Sharp appearing before the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Ms Nandy’s comments came after the Conservative Party’s development minister Andrew Mitchell said the report’s findings are a “matter for the BBC”.
“I think Damian Green (acting chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee) is a very senior member of the House of Commons and what he and his committee says matters,” he said.
“But I think, as I say, this is really something which the public appointments commissioner must look at and we must wait for his judgement. And above all, of course, it’s a matter for the judgement of the BBC.”
Sharp claims he ‘acted in good faith’
Mr Sharp has said he didn’t arrange the loan but admitted introducing his friend Sam Blyth, a cousin of Mr Johnson who wanted to help the then-PM, to the Cabinet Office.
A spokesperson for Mr Sharp said he “regrets” not telling MPs about his association with Mr Blyth “and apologises”.
“It was in seeking at the time to ensure that the rules were followed, and in the belief that this had been achieved, that Mr Sharp acted in good faith in the way he did,” the spokesperson said.
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It’s hard to see how Sharp survives this sleazy aftershock of Johnson’s time in office
Of the three investigations launched into Richard Sharp’s appointment, this was always the one least likely to prove fatal for his position as BBC chair.
That’s simply because the other inquiries are being run by Whitehall’s official regulator for appointments and the BBC itself.
If the findings from either of those two are anywhere near as critical as this committee report, it’s hard to see how Mr Sharp survives in post.
That’s because the BBC chair really needs to carry the confidence of the government and the corporation to execute the role.
It’s a wholly unwelcome development for BBC employees who have felt increasingly under siege in recent years from a mix of budget cuts, mass redundancies and accusations of political bias.
Given Richard Sharp himself has said the BBC has a “liberal bias”, the fact he has dragged the corporation into this row is particularly grating for many.
But despite this being another example of a somewhat sleazy aftershock of Boris Johnson’s time in office, it’s an unideal situation for Rishi Sunak too.
The prime minister used to work for Richard Sharp at Goldman Sachs, adding to the sense this is all a symptom of a cosy and monied establishment looking after itself.
In its strongly-worded report on the matter, the committee said: “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 judgement, which undermine confidence in the public appointments process and could deter qualified individuals from applying for such posts.”
The MPs continued: “Mr Sharp should consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC and the public appointments process.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is reviewing the competition to ensure the process was run in compliance with the rules and we will await the outcome.”
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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