Oliver Dowden, the new deputy prime minister, said the manner of Richard Sharp’s appointment was “transparent” and above board as the beleaguered BBC chair and Tory donor awaits publication of a report into how he secured the job.
Dowden, who was culture secretary in February 2021 when Sharp was given the role, said he would not pre-empt an ongoing investigation by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA).
“As secretary of state responsible for his appointment, we as a department went around the appointment process well. We ran it transparently and I have every confidence that the inquiry will uphold that process as being the right one,” Dowden, who became deputy PM on Friday after Dominic Raab resigned, told Sky News on Sunday.
A report by the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee found that Sharp had made “significant errors of judgment” in failing to declare his role in an £800,000 personal loan for Boris Johnson shortly before the then prime minister recommended him for the post of BBC chair.
OCPA has commissioned lawyer Adam Heppinstall KC to carry out an inquiry into the selection process that led to Sharp’s appointment which could be published as soon as Monday.
At the heart of the controversy is Sharp’s failure to declare his role as an intermediary in talks about the loan for Johnson which was guaranteed by Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman and distant cousin of Johnson.
The former Goldman Sachs banker has previously said he put Blyth, who had approached him with a view to assisting Johnson, in touch with Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and the UK’s most senior civil servant, but only to ensure “due process was followed”. A spokesperson for Sharp declined to comment on Sunday.
However, Sharp has previously said he acted in good faith through the process. People familiar with Sharp‘s thinking said that Case should have flagged then whether a conflict of interest applied.
One person briefed on the draft report told the FT last week that its contents made “grim” reading for Sharp, raising questions over his future at the corporation.
Sharp has been sent and has since challenged the parts of the draft report with allegations over his behaviour, including via his lawyer. This is part of the process that allows people facing criticism, ahead of publication of an official report, to respond.
Concern about political interference in the process had already surfaced in October 2020 when former BBC chair Sir David Clementi wrote to Dowden to voice disquiet about reports that the government was in talks with a preferred candidate, the former Telegraph editor Lord Charles Moore, before the job was advertised.
In the end Moore ruled himself out and the job went to Sharp, a Tory donor and former boss of prime minister Rishi Sunak, who was then chancellor, at Goldman Sachs.
Asked about the Clementi letter on Sunday, Dowden said he was confident that Sharp won the job through a “transparent and open” process. Dowden said it was not true that the Tory party was “packing public appointments” with its own supporters.
