Labour calls for investigation into Boris Johnson’s appointment of BBC chair after ‘sleaze’ allegations

Labour has called for an investigation into the appointment of Richard Sharp as BBC chair after he allegedly helped Boris Johnson secure a loan guarantee shortly before being appointed to the job.

The opposition party have written to both the Commissioner for Public Appointments and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after the Sunday Times reported Sharp helped arrange a guarantor for an £800,000 loan to the former prime minister in late 2020. 

The source of the loan, which was never declared, remains unknown but the guarantor was Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman and distant cousin of Johnson. 

“Serious questions need to be asked of Johnson”, Labour chair Anneliese Dodds wrote to Daniel Greenberg on Saturday. “The financial affairs of this disgraced former prime minister just keep getting murkier, dragging the Conservative Party deeper into yet another quagmire of sleaze.”

Labour argued the allegations threatened the integrity of the BBC as Johnson recommended Sharp to the BBC role just weeks before the loan was secured.

Writing to William Shawcross, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said: “It is vital that the public and Parliament can have trust in this process and it is free from any real or perceived conflict of interest.”

“Accordingly, I urge you to investigate this process, and satisfy the public and parliament of its integrity,” she wrote.

A spokesman for Johnson told the Sunday Times: “This is rubbish. Richard Sharp has never given any financial advice to Boris Johnson, nor has Mr Johnson sought any financial advice from him. There has never been any remuneration or compensation to Mr Sharp from Boris Johnson for this or any other service. 

“Mr Johnson did indeed have dinner with Mr Sharp, whom he has known for almost 20 years, and with his cousin. So what? Big deal. All Mr Johnson’s financial arrangements have been properly declared and registered on the advice of officials.”

Sharp told the paper: “There is not a conflict when I simply connected, at his request, Mr Blyth with the cabinet secretary and had no further involvement whatsoever.”