BBC chairman Richard Sharp resigns over loan to Boris Johnson
- Richard Sharp helped arrange a 2021 loan for Boris Johnson weeks before he was appointed to the BBC post
- Sharp said he was quitting to ‘prioritise the interests of the BBC’ after making an ‘inadvertent’ breach of rules
The chairman of the BBC quit Friday after a report found he failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest over his role in arranging a 2021 loan for Boris Johnson, who was the UK’s prime minister at the time.
The publicly funded national broadcaster has been under political pressure after it was revealed that Richard Sharp helped arrange the line of credit weeks before he was appointed to the BBC post on the government’s recommendation.
The £800,000 (US$1 million) line of credit came from wealthy Canadian businessman Sam Blyth, who was introduced to Johnson by Sharp, a Conservative Party donor. Johnson was the party’s leader as well as British prime minister.
Sharp said he was quitting to “prioritise the interests of the BBC” after making an “inadvertent” breach of the rules.
“I feel that this matter may well be a distraction from the corporation’s good work were I to remain in post until the end of my term,” said Sharp, who was formerly a boss of current premier Rishi Sunak at Goldman Sachs.
Sharp said he would remain in his BBC role until the end of June while the search for a successor takes place.
