Richard Sharp caved to the inevitable by resigning – however harm to the BBC has already been completed

After three months of refusing to go away, Richard Sharp succumbed to what was maybe inevitable. 

His fastidiously choreographed TV statement was recorded earlier than the report was even printed, and he averted the necessity to do an interview.

Mr Sharp has, subsequently, not been held to account concerning the harm his behaviour and this entire row has had on the BBC’s repute.

If there was one level Richard Sharp hoped to make in his assertion, it was that his appointment was legitimate.

That, he steered, was the important thing discovering of the report by Adam Heppinstall KC.

Yes, there was a breach of the governance code, however not one which made his place untenable, Mr Sharp argued.

He claimed the breach was “inadvertent”, however notably, the KC didn’t make a judgment on that time.

Mr Sharp’s key message gave the impression to be that his departure from the company was of his personal selecting.

But the element of the report published by the commissioner for public appointments attracts that framing into query.

Latest reaction to Richard Sharp’s resignation

Richard Sharp has jumped, however had he not, it is rather doable he would have been pushed.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer mentioned she “respects” Mr Sharp’s resignation, maybe partly as a result of it means she has averted having to make a tough resolution (the BBC constitution says it’s as much as her to take away a chair in session with the BBC board).

Ultimately, Rishi Sunak would doubtless have been the ultimate arbiter over Mr Sharp’s future, a doubtlessly awkward scenario since Sharp was as soon as the prime minister’s boss throughout his time at Goldman Sachs.

This – just like the privileges investigation into Boris Johnson – is one more instance of how that former PM’s behaviour remains to be inflicting issues for one in every of his successors.

Mr Johnson’s funds (or slightly the dearth of them) is the rationale Sam Blyth approached Mr Sharp within the first place.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have tried to make use of this saga to feed right into a narrative of Conservative sleaze and cronyism. Such punchy political responses are unsurprising six days forward of native elections in England.

Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell argues Mr Sharp ought to have been sacked by the PM weeks in the past.

But the BBC chair has lengthy been a political appointment, and Labour governments have appointed Labour supporters to the function up to now.

Mr Sharp will stay in put up till 27 June when an performing chair will take over. The course of to discover a everlasting alternative is prone to be rigorous and topic to a lot media scrutiny.

The proposed closing candidate for the £160,000 a 12 months function may even face a grilling by the tradition choose committee, which has been so important of Richard Sharp’s conduct.

Today the BBC chairman has resigned to minimise harm to the company’s repute.

But some argue he might have completed that much better by making the identical resolution three months in the past.