Boris Johnson’s hopes that BBC chairman Richard Sharp might act like a human shield for him were dashed within the opening minutes of a Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee.
Sharp faced a grilling by MPs after the disclosure that he helped the former prime minister secure a loan of up to £800,000 before he backed his appointment to lead the broadcaster.
The cross-party panel of MPs challenged him over his apparent failure to tell them about the arrangement at his pre-appointment hearing in January 2021.
It recently emerged that, in late 2020, he introduced his friend Sam Blyth to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to discuss whether Blyth, a distant cousin of Johnson, could act as a guarantor for a loan facility for the then-prime minister.
Sharp, a Tory donor, was in the process of applying for the BBC chairmanship when he made the introduction and then took up the role in February 2021.
Ahead of the hearing, Johnson slammed reports of alleged conflicts of interest between him and the BBC chairman.
He told reporters he knows for “ding dang sure” that Sharp knows “absolutely nothing” about his finances.
Unfortunately for him, that defence lasted all of two minutes today:
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