The UK’s Public Appointments Commissioner, William Shawcross, announced on Monday that the recruitment process of the current chairman of the BBC, Richard Sharp, will be reviewed by the body, which is responsible for ensuring the independence of the process of electing public ministerial positions.
According to the newspaper ‘The Times’ published on Saturday, Sharp was a key player in the process to get a loan of up to 800,000 pounds sterling for former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had problems to face the payments of his divorce and the remodeling of his office in 2020.
The cited newspaper alleges that the current BBC chairman held talks and held a dinner with Johnson, then British cabinet secretary Simon Case and Canadian billionaire Sam Blyth, Johnson’s distant cousin.
It was Blyth who approached Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs banker, with the idea of acting as a guarantor in the process just at the time when the candidate had already submitted his application to become chairman of the network.
As explained by the BBC on Monday, the government’s choice of chairman is ultimately decided by the prime minister, on the advice of the culture minister, who in turn is advised by a panel.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
