BBC chairman Richard Sharp says he won't quit over Boris Johnson loan row
Culture and media editor, BBC NewsRichard Sharp is accused of helping facilitate a loan to the then prime minister, when Mr Sharp was applying to be BBC chairman.Mr Sharp denies being involved in any loan and told the BBC he believes he will be exonerated because he "was appointed on merit".He doesn't appear to be a man who thinks he has done anything wrong.
On Tuesday he gave some more information about what happened, welcomed the scrutiny and maintained he had taken steps to ensure "due process was followed by the book". Mr Blyth had offered to be the guarantor on a loan for Mr Johnson after reading press reports that he was under financial pressure. He said: "With all this fuss, with the benefit of hindsight, particularly at that time I might have said 'Do it yourself', but I was working in Downing Street at the time as the economic advisor to support industries".
Describing the meeting, he said: "Sam came to me and said, 'Do you want to come to Chequers? I'm going down to have dinner with Al' [an abbreviation of Mr Johnson's first name Alexander]. Mr Sharp said he made the cabinet secretary aware of his application to be chairman when he told him about Mr Blyth's financial offer in late 2020.
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