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**Hugh** · 21-01-2023, 21:46

The previous Prime Minister is the g(r)ift that keeps on giving…

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The BBC chairman, the prime minister and the £800,000 loan guarantee

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...6a09917ba59a92

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The BBC chairman helped to arrange a guarantee on a loan of up to £800,000 for Boris Johnson weeks before the then prime minister recommended him for the role.

Richard Sharp was involved in talks about financing Johnson’s Downing Street lifestyle in November and December 2020. Sharp, 66, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, had already submitted his application to become chairman of the public service broadcaster and had reached the final stages of the recruitment process.

Late in 2020, Johnson, 58, was in financial trouble as he faced divorce payments, childcare costs and bills for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. Sharp, a friend and former adviser to the politician who has given £400,000 to the Conservative Party, became involved that November after a dinner at the home of Sam Blyth, an old friend, in west London.

Before the loan was finalised, Johnson, Sharp and Blyth had a private dinner at Chequers, the prime minister’s grace-and-favour home in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, where, according to a source, they ate chop suey and drank wine. The three insist that Johnson’s finances were not discussed.

In late December, the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team wrote a formal letter telling Johnson to stop seeking Sharp’s advice about his personal finances, given the forthcoming BBC appointment.

By then, Johnson had selected Sharp as his preferred candidate and, days later, on January 6, 2021, Oliver Dowden, who was then culture secretary, announced him as the government’s choice for the £160,000-a-year role.

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Sharp did not disclose his involvement in Johnson’s finances to the panel. Nor did he inform the BBC, and the matter was not disclosed during his pre-appointment hearing before a House of Commons select committee in February 2021.

The government’s own job application form explicitly says: “You cannot be considered for a public appointment if ... you fail to declare any conflict of interest.” It also tells candidates to report “any issues in your personal or professional history that could, if you were appointed, be misconstrued, cause embarrassment, or cause public confidence in the appointment to be jeopardised”.

Johnson never disclosed Sharp’s involvement in the MPs’ register of interests, which says members must declare any benefit that could influence, or be perceived to influence, their public work. He also omitted it from his register of ministerial interests.