Sunak under pressure to stop choosing Tories for
BBC jobs after Sharp row
Conservative party accused of undermining broadcaster
by flooding it with cronies after chair’s resignation
Jim
Waterson and Kiran Stacey
Fri 28 Apr
2023 18.01 BST
Rishi Sunak
is under pressure to stop appointing Conservatives to key positions at the BBC
after Richard Sharp’s resignation prompted criticism the party had undermined
the broadcaster by flooding it with cronies.
Sharp quit
as BBC chair on Friday morning after an investigation concluded he had failed
to disclose key information about his relationship with the former prime minister
Boris Johnson when applying for the job in 2021. Sharp helped facilitate an
£800,000 loan guarantee for Johnson when he was in the running to take over the
broadcaster but did not tell the appointments panel.
His
resignation plunges the BBC into another period of uncertainty and mires the
Tories in a further row over the behaviour of some its most senior members and
appointees. It follows the recent resignation of Dominic Raab as deputy prime
minister over bullying allegations and the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi as party
chair over his tax affairs.
But it also
gives Sunak an unexpected opportunity to put his stamp on the broadcaster by
appointing a new chair for a four-year term.
Lucy
Powell, the shadow culture secretary, said Sharp had caused “untold damage to
the reputation of the BBC and seriously undermined its independence as a result
of the Conservatives’ sleaze and cronyism”. She called on Sunak to run a “truly
independent and robust” recruitment process for Sharp’s replacement, saying
that only this could “restore the esteem of the BBC after his government has
tarnished it so much”.
Ed Vaizey,
the Conservative peer and former culture minister, said the prime minister
should make sure the next appointments process was “beyond reproach”.
Peter
Riddell, who was public appointments commissioner when Sharp was given the job,
said Johnson had been “conflicted” during the appointments process. He called
on Downing Street not to leak the name of a chosen successor over the coming
months in an effort to put off other candidates.
The report
by the barrister Adam Heppinstall found Sharp had created a “potential
perceived conflict of interest” by failing to tell an interview panel in late
2020 that he had discussed the BBC job with Johnson prior to sending in his
application. Johnson went on to appoint Sharp to the job, months after friendly
media outlets had been briefed that the former Goldman Sachs banker was Downing
Street’s choice for the role.
Sharp was
also criticised for not disclosing a discussion with the head of the civil
service during the recruitment process, at which he introduced a man who would
later organise a £800,000 personal loan facility for Johnson. At this time the
prime minister was struggling with his personal finances due to the costs of
his divorce. It is still not known who ultimately loaned him the money.
Sharp, a
Tory donor who was previously Sunak’s boss at Goldman Sachs, quit on Friday
morning. He concluded his continued presence at the BBC “may well be a
distraction from the corporation’s good work”, while saying the lack of
disclosure during the application process had been unintentional.
Sharp had
originally indicated he intended to fight to save his job, but he ended up
resigning immediately after its publication. Tim Davie, the BBC director
general, was spotted visiting Sharp’s house on Thursday afternoon, prompting
speculation the chair was encouraged to quit.
The
investigation into Sharp’s appointment was particularly damning on the way the
application process for the job was handled. Other candidates were put off from
putting forward their names for the BBC job by the perception it was already
lined up for Sharp, while at every stage it was made clear Downing Street
wanted him to have the job.
Sunak will
have the opportunity to select his preferred candidate for BBC chair, with the
hiring process – and the independence of the preferred candidate – likely to be
subject to enormous external scrutiny. The government has the ability to
appoint the chair of the BBC and several other directors, in addition to
setting the amount of money it receives from the licence fee.
One Downing
Street source said they had been blindsided by Sharp’s resignation, given the
indication he intended to fight on. “The PM really hasn’t been thinking about a
successor to Sharp,” the source said. “He’s been focused on lots of other
things, but not this.”
Rather than
immediately accept Sharp’s resignation, the government has asked him to remain
in the role for two months so it can select an interim chair before starting
the lengthy process of finding a full-time replacement.
Under the
terms of the BBC’s charter, the temporary chair has to be one of the seven
non-executive directors who sit on the broadcaster’s governing board. They include
public figures such as the former television presenter Muriel Gray, the
financier Shumeet Banerji, the Welsh academic Elan Closs Stephens and the
accountant Shirley Garrood.
The most
explosive option available to Sunak would be to appoint the former BBC
journalist Robbie Gibb, who became Theresa May’s director of communications
when she was prime minister. He was appointed to the BBC’s board as a director
by Johnson’s government and has repeatedly criticised perceived anti-Brexit and
anti-Tory bias in the corporation’s output.
The
simplest option would be to give the job to Damon Buffini, the deputy chair,
who has been tasked with improving the BBC’s commercial performance. Another
leading candidate is Nicholas Serota, the chair of Arts Council England.
The
government will then have to start the process of recruiting a full-time chair
of the BBC to serve a fresh four-year term. This gives Sunak the unexpected
opportunity of putting a Tory-backed appointee in charge of the BBC’s board
until 2027, making it harder for a potential Labour government to shape the
national broadcaster if it wins the next election.
Sharp’s
resignation comes at a troubled time for the broadcaster, which is facing a
financial crisis after 13 years of cuts to its funding under a Conservative-led
government. This week MPs criticised it for being too slow to move away from
its traditional television and radio channels towards a digital future, saying
the BBC risked being made irrelevant by rivals such as Netflix.
Michelle
Stanistreet, the general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said
Sharp “had lost the dressing room, he had lost the respect of senior figures in
the broadcasting industry and besmirched the reputation of the BBC”. She urged
the government to appoint a chair who would champion public service
broadcasting.
Labour has
called for the recruitment process, which is likely to take most of the summer,
to be transparent and independent. The party is already running its own panel
to review the workings of the BBC, which met for the first time last week. It
will come up with policy proposals on strengthening the BBC’s independence from
government, especially when it comes to appointments.
But top BBC
appointments have always been in the hands of the government of the day, an
influence that Labour may be loth to give up if it wins the next general
election.
In his
resignation statement, Sharp said that “for all its complexities, successes,
and occasional failings, the BBC is an incredible, dynamic, and world-beating
creative force, unmatched anywhere”.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário