Richard Sharp has friends everywhere – but ultimately left BBC on his own

theguardian.com:

R ichard Sharp, 67, is a man of many friends. Until now – at the point of his resignation as chair of the BBC over a conflict of interest that had emerged from these cosy relationships – this had suited him just fine.

Some of those friends – like Sam Blyth, the Canadian businessman, bon vivant and distant cousin of Boris Johnson – Sharp has spoken of knowing since leaving the University of Oxford “some 40 years ago”. Others, such as Johnson, who came to benefit from an £800,000 loan guarantee facility from Blyth via Sharp, are more recent in the making, born of a shared politics and the two men’s joint determination to oust Ken Livingstone from his post as London mayor in 2008.

Then there is the former banker’s relationship with Rishi Sunak, which could be said to be somewhere in between in its tenure and type. Sunak, “fresh out of university” Sharp has recalled fondly, was his financial modeller at Goldman Sachs in the early 2000s. The older man had once advised that the prime minister was not cut out for the “dirty” business of politics.

In September 2020, this swirl of friendships, these apparently effortlessly secured connections, fatefully aligned. At the end of a dinner at Blyth’s home, the colourful Canadian entrepreneur had expressed alarm at press reports that his tousled-haired relative was in some financial discomfort due to divorce payments, childcare costs and bills for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. Sharp had a word with the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, about the possibilities.

Around the same time, due to Sharp having taken a position as an adviser to Sunak, who was then chancellor, he had also been mixing among high-ups in the media world, as he was seeking to prop up Britain’s film industry