BBC chairman Richard Sharp and former prime minister Boris Johnson
(Picture: ES Composite)BBC chairman Richard Sharp insisted he has “never given financial advice” to Boris Johnson as he was grilled by MPs on Tuesday.
Mr Sharp appeared before the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee to answer questions about his involvement in Mr Johnson’s financial affairs.
It has been reported that Mr Sharp helped the then-Prime Minister secure a loan of up to £800,000 before being chosen to lead the broadcaster.
The cross-party panel of MPs challenged him over his apparent failure to tell them about the arrangement at his pre-appointment hearing in January 2021.
The former Goldman Sachs banker came under fire after it emerged that, in late 2020, he introduced his friend Sam Blyth to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case.
They discussed whether Mr Blyth, a distant cousin of Mr Johnson, could act as a guarantor for a loan for the then-prime minister.
Mr Sharp told the committee: “I want to make it clear that I have never given financial advice to the former prime minister. He never asked for it, he never received it from me.”
He conceded that he had acted “as a sort of introduction agency” when arranging a meeting between Mr Case and Sam Blyth.
”What I did was ensured that due process and propriety was followed,” he said.
He added he then “raised with Mr Blyth the fact that I'd submitted my application to be the chair of the BBC and that therefore to avoid a conflict, or perception of conflict, I could have - and we agreed - no further participation in whatever transpired whatsoever, and I didn’t.”
Mr Sharp said a dinner party with himself, Mr Blyth and Mr Johnson did take place, but not in November as reported.
“A dinner did take place but it took place in May, and that was after I was the chair of the BBC,” he said.
Mr Sharp, a Tory donor, was in the process of applying for the BBC chairmanship when he made the introduction and then took up the role in February 2021.
His selection is under investigation by the public appointments watchdog.
The Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is to review the way competition for the post was run to ensure it was in compliance with Whitehall rules.
On Monday, lawyer Adam Heppinstall KC was appointed to lead the watchdog’s investigation after public appointments commissioner William Shawcross recused himself last week, saying he had met Mr Sharp “on previous occasions”.
