BBC Complained To Government About Chairman Appointment Process Ahead Of Richard Sharp Hire

Jake Kanter
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: The BBC raised concerns about the way the government was going about appointing its new Chairman before the controversial hire of Richard Sharp.

Sir David Clementi, the BBC’s former Chairman, wrote to the government in October 2020 to complain about the recruitment process for his successor.

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The UK government is responsible for appointing the BBC’s Chairman, while ministers also play a role in hiring four other board members.

The procedure has become increasingly divisive, with concerns about ministers installing political candidates, leaving the BBC open to the accusation that its non-executive directors are too close to the government.

Clementi’s letter to Oliver Dowden, the former Culture Secretary, could fuel suspicions that the government played politics with the BBC’s board amid a wider agenda against the broadcaster.

In the letter, disclosed by the BBC under a Freedom of Information request, Clementi raised questions about the Chairman recruitment process after it was reported that Lord Moore, the former editor of The Daily Telegraph and arch-BBC critic, was offered the job before a recruitment process had even begun.

Clementi said: “The [BBC Nominations] Committee is also concerned about the appointment of my successor as Chair … We were concerned about the very strong press reports that the government, even before the job had been advertised, was in discussions with a preferred candidate, including a discussion about salary.”

Moore eventually ruled himself out of the running and the government advertised the post. Sharp, a Conservative Party donor, was appointed in January 2021, but he did not fully disclose his role in helping facilitate an £800,000 ($977,000) loan guarantee for Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister.

In the same letter, Clementi expressed reservations about the government’s slow progress in hiring BBC board members to represent England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

“Having reviewed progress on these appointments, the Nominations Committee felt that I should write to you to express our disappointment that these issues have not been progressed as rapidly as we would wish,” Clementi said.

He said the slow progress posed a risk to the “overall effectiveness” of the board because it could have led to a shortage of non-executive directors, as the terms of existing board members expired.

Sharp, the former Goldman Sachs banker, is under pressure to resign over his role in the Johnson loan. The matter is currently being investigated by lawyer Adam Heppinstall on behalf of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee said Sharp made “significant errors of judgment” in failing to properly disclose his conversations over the loan.

The BBC declined to comment on Clementi’s letter. A government spokesperson said: “The Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is reviewing the competition to ensure the process was run in compliance with the rules and we will await the outcome.”

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