BBC chairman Richard Sharp is braced for a report into his appointment to the role after he helped facilitate an £800,000 loan guarantee for Boris Johnson.

The investigation by barrister Adam Heppinstall KC is expected to be published today (Friday April 28).

According to the Telegraph, it will conclude that Mr Sharp breached the rules by creating a perception of a conflict of interest.

But he was said to be reluctant to resign, which would leave it to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to determine his fate. The newspaper report could not be confirmed.

Mr Sunak may be reluctant to get rid of Mr Sharp as the men are close friends – Mr Sharp was Mr Sunak’s boss at Goldman Sachs and was drafted in by the then chancellor to work on the Treasury’s response to the Covid crisis.

Sharp, a former Conservative donor, was appointed to the influential role overseeing the public broadcaster’s independence in 2021.

But the former Goldman Sachs banker has faced calls to resign after it emerged he helped the then-prime minister arrange the loan.

MPs have already criticised Sharp’s “significant errors of judgment”.

He has admitted introducing his friend Sam Blyth, a cousin of Johnson who wanted to help him with his financial troubles, to the Cabinet Office in 2020.

In January the following year he was named as the Government’s preferred candidate to be BBC chairman.

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The Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee confirmed his appointment, but was not aware of his role in helping to facilitate the loan.

He formally took up the four-year appointment in February 2021, but allegations of cronyism followed when the Sunday Times revealed the loan agreement.

Commissioner for Public Appointments William Shawcross announced he would review the way competition for the post was run to ensure it was in compliance with Whitehall rules.

But Heppinstall was appointed to carry it out when Shawcross recused himself because he had met the BBC chairman on previous occasions.

The DCMS committee in February said Sharp had committed errors of judgment by failing to declare his role in the loan to the cross-party group of MPs before his appointment.

A spokesman for Sharp said he “regrets” not telling them about his involvement with his old friend Blyth, a Canadian businessman, “and apologises”.

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