OPINION - BBC chairman Richard Sharp resigns in storm over loan
There are numerous benefits to UK political parties of being in government rather than opposition. Ministerial cars, nuclear weapons launch codes and with a decent enough majority you can even implement your public policy preferences. Another less heralded power is that of appointments.
There are the obvious ones – prime ministers appoint (and dismiss) cabinet ministers and more junior members of the government, as well as sign off on permanent secretaries and special advisors. But ministers (and ultimately Number 10) have the final say in a whole swathe of high-level roles, including some seemingly not very political at all.
With thanks to Tim Durrant of the Institute for Government, I’ve got hold of a pretty exhaustive list of public appointments to bodies where chairs and sometimes board members require ministerial approval. There are more than 350, ranging from the Atomic Energy Authority to the British Film Institute.
Patronage is a handy power, and there are two main schools of thought on how to exercise it. The first is that you hire your political allies. After all, what is the point of winning elections if you can’t determine who should run the *checks notes* Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew?
The alternative strategy is to appoint your rivals. This clearly runs counter to the first theory but contains a certain logic to it. Take the appointment of Simon Stevens as chief executive of NHS England back in 2014. He was well qualified, having spent a decade at US healthcare giant United Health Group and on the boards of various non-profits, such as the King’s Fund.
But Stevens was also a former Labour councillor who had served as a special advisor to successive secretaries of state for health in Tony Blair’s government, and then as a senior advisor to the prime minister himself in the Number 10 Policy Unit.
The benefit of appointing from outside of the Tory family was not only accessing Stevens’ expertise, but in blunting attacks from the opposition. Harder for Ed Miliband to criticise the NHS when its leader in England was a former Labour man. This is what is known as politics, but it is not always followed.
BBC chairman is one of the more notable roles which is signed off by senior ministers (though Gary Lineker says it shouldn’t be). And since this morning, there has been a vacancy. Richard Sharp has resigned following an investigation by Adam Heppinstall KC, which found that he failed to properly disclose a potential conflict of interest over his role in facilitating an £800,000 loan guarantee for then-prime minister Boris Johnson.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and ultimately Rishi Sunak now have the opportunity to appoint Sharp’s successor. Clearly, the prime minister needs little assistance in securing a mortgage, so that is one less worry. And with an election roughly a year away, he may be tempted to appoint an ally for the four-year term, one who could theoretically outlast him in post. But the political advantage of binding your opponents in by appointing one of their own remains underpriced.
Elsewhere in the paper, transport editor Ross Lydall reports on new details about the Superloop bus services being planned for the suburbs, as Transport for London launches a consultation on the first section between Harrow and North Finchley. TfL has also published maps showing the limited-stop network in greater detail.
In the comment pages, Emily Sheffield says we shouldn’t rise to Suella Braverman’s bait, but asks exactly what level of immigration do we want? While if you want to see the fashion world as it truly is, Paul Flynn urges you to watch this Lagerfeld film.
And finally, the best of what to eat, drink, see and do this bank holiday weekend in the capital.
Whatever you choose, have a good one.
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