Rishi Sunak said he would not “pre-judge” an investigation into Richard Sharp’s ties with Boris Johnson.
Rishi Sunak has declined to fully back BBC chairman Richard Sharp.
Mr Sharp is under scrutiny after it emerged he acted as a go-between for a loan guarantee for then prime minister Boris Johnson.
A report by a committee of MPs found that he made “significant errors of judgement” in doing this while applying for the BBC post.
He insists he got the job on merit and denies a conflict of interest.
Questioned on Monday, Mr Sunak said he would not “pre-judge” the outcome of an investigation by the government’s appointments watchdog.
Asked directly if Mr Sunak had confidence in Mr Sharp the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “Yes, we are confident the process was followed.
“This was a two-stage process, including assessment by an advisory assessment panel, constituted according to the public appointments code. But there is a review into this process and we will look at that carefully.”
Pressure is growing on the former banker after a critical report by MPs found he showed “significant errors of judgement” in acting as a go-between for Sam Blyth, a Canadian millionaire and distant cousin of Mr Johnson.
Mr Blyth said he was willing to act as guarantor on a loan reportedly worth up to £800,000 for the then-PM after reading media reports he was in financial difficulty.
Mr Sharp, who was working as a Treasury adviser at the time, approached Simon Case, the country’s most senior civil servant, to arrange a meeting between the pair.
At the time he had already applied for the BBC job and was advised to have no further involvement in the talks.
Mr Sharp insists his involvement in the matter ended with that single meeting, despite admitting he met socially with Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth at Chequers months later.
The chairman is in charge of upholding and protecting the BBC’s independence and ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain, among other things.
BBC News understands the BBC board is meeting on Monday. One source has told BBC News that there were no scheduled meetings planned this month.
BBC News has contacted the other board members for comment.
Asked about the appointment during a visit to Oldham, Mr Sunak said: “This relates to a process that happened before I was prime minister, obviously.
“It is currently being looked at by the independent office of public appointments and that process is ongoing so I can’t speculate or pre-judge the outcome of that, but it is an independent process that is going to look at it and make sure that everything was followed correctly and all the rules and procedures were adhered to and obviously we will wait for that report.”
A Downing Street spokesman was pressed by reporters on the government’s position following Mr Sunak’s comments this morning.
He said: “We are confident the process was followed. But obviously there is a review ongoing so I am not going to get into speculating while that is happening.”
Asked a third time to clarify if the prime minister had confidence in Mr Sharp or in the process of appointing him Mr Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “We are confident a standard process was followed, there is a review that is taking place.”
At the fourth time of questioning, when asked “does Richard Sharp retain the Prime Minister’s support?”, the spokesperson replied: “Yes, again I don’t have much more beyond what I have already said.”