Case told BBC chairman he was ‘on the side of the angels’
SIMON CASE, the Cabinet Secretary, told the then chairman of the BBC “you on the side of the angels”, just months before he was forced to quit over a loan to Boris Johnson, it has been claimed.
Richard Sharp resigned from the corporation after a report found he had broken the rules on public appointments by failing to declare his involvement in facilitating a loan to the then prime minister. Mr Case told the inquiry that he could not recall details of a key conversation with Mr Sharp.
However, friends of Mr Sharp have insisted that Mr Case told the BBC chairman he had “done nothing wrong” when confronted with an allegation he had been involved in helping Mr Johnson, who was in financial difficulties.
Allies of Mr Sharp have said he would still be in the job if Mr Case had backed up his version of events over the meeting in December 2020, prior to his appointment as BBC chairman, in which he told the Cabinet Secretary about an offer of financial help to Mr Johnson. The offer was being made by Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman and distant cousin of Mr Johnson.
Mr Sharp said he believed at the time that he had recused himself from any involvement by passing the details to Mr Case. The Daily Telegraph has been told that the pair also had a conversation in January after being notified that The Sunday Times was planning to publish a story on Mr Sharp’s relationship with Mr Johnson.
A friend of Mr Sharp said: “Richard spoke to Case in January and Case said to him ‘you have done nothing wrong.
You are on the side of the angels’.” The conversation was not relayed to the inquiry. It concluded that Mr Sharp’s failure to declare to the interviewing panel the offer of help to Mr Johnson had created a “perception” of a conflict of interest.
The Telegraph has also seen correspondence between a senior communications official in the Cabinet Office and Mr Sharp in which it is made clear that Mr Sharp had decided not to participate in any future discussions with Mr Johnson about his finances and that Mr Case had approved that course of action.