Former BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten spoke to Andrew Marr last night on LBC about current BBC Chair Richard Sharp’s “perception of a conflict of interest is… different from your view or my view… I don’t see how if I was in his position I could conceivably stay on.”
The former BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten has told Andrew Marr that the current BBC Chair Richard Sharp’s ‘perception of a conflict of interest is… different from your view or my view… I don’t see how if I was in his position I could conceivably stay on.’
Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Lord Patten who also led the reforms to the police service in Northern Ireland commented that it was important that an outside organisation oversees the necessary ‘root and branch’ reforms needed in the Met.
The former Conservative Party Chair also shared his advice to former PM Boris Johnson, telling Marr ‘I think he should go off and make more speeches, count his money and try and write a better book on Shakespeare than the one he wrote on Churchill.’
When asked if he believes if the current BBC Chair Richard Sharp should remain in post, Lord Patten, who was Chair of the BBC Trust between 2011 to 2014, replied:
‘His [Richard Sharp’s] idea of what is a conflict of interest or what is a perception of a conflict of interest is clearly different from that of the House of Commons Media Committee, and I think, I suspect, different from your view or my view of a conflict of interest. Secondly, even before all that came out, he had said some things about the BBC, which I thought were pretty awful. He had said that it was guilty of liberal bias. And he had said that it had got the country’s mood wrong over Brexit. Well, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove got the outcome of the Brexit vote wrong. So, I think on those grounds alone, it’s not surprising that a lot of people who work for the BBC are rather doubtful about what he can do for them as Chairman… I don’t see how if I was in his position I could conceivably stay on.’
Lord Patten who led the reforms to the police service in Northern Ireland, commented on the need to reform the Metropolitan Police, telling Andrew:
‘Having looked at the extraordinary report by Baroness Casey, which is a terrifying read about what she thinks is the misogynism, the sexism, the homophobia, the racism in the in the police and we all have personal stories, I’m sure which justify her conclusions. And in order to deal with it, I think it’s going to be necessary to have a real root and branch reform, not just hope for the best. But it’s also I think, important to have people who are responsible from the outside for overseeing the change, which is one of the things we did in Northern Ireland.’
Sharing his advice to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the former Conversative Party Chairman said:
‘I think he should go off and make more speeches, count his money and try and write a better book on Shakespeare than the one he wrote on Churchill.’
LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr. Follow the conversation on @lbc & @andrewmarr9
