Latest editorial
BBC chairman Richard Sharp (left) and Boris Johnson
BBC chairman Richard Sharp’s position is “untenable,” Labour insisted today after MPs found that he had made “significant errors of judgement” when acting as a go-between on a loan for disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell argued that Mr Sharp’s help, offered when the former Tory donor was applying to the government for the post in early 2021, “throws into serious doubt the impartiality and independence that is so fundamental to trust in the BBC.”
In a highly critical report published today, the digital, culture, media and sport committee, which interviewed Mr Sharp last week, said that he had not supplied the “full facts” when it was considering his suitability for the BBC role.
On January 2 2014, PJ Harvey used her turn as guest editor of the Today programme to expose the realities of war, arms dealing and media complicity. The fury that followed showed how rare – and how threatening – such honesty is within Britain’s most Establishment broadcaster, says IAN SINCLAIR
As the PM and his chief of staff’s blunders have mounted up, ANDREW MURRAY wonders who among Labour’s diminished ‘soft left’ might make a bid for the leadership
The fallout from the Kneecap and Bob Vylan performances at Glastonbury raises questions about the suitability of senior BBC management for their roles, says STEPHEN ARNELL