BBC chairman Richard Sharp faces calls to quit over Gary Lineker meltdown

BBC chairman Richard Sharp is facing growing calls to resign amid the Gary Lineker impartiality row which has sparked an unprecedented crisis at the corporation.

Roger Bolton, a former senior executive at the BBC, joined calls from opposition parties and senior media figures for Mr Sharp to quit.

Mr Bolton said the chairman was compromised by the investigation into whether he failed to properly share details of his involvement in facilitating an £800,000 loan for Boris Johnson when he was at No 10.

“The BBC chairman now needs to resign,” he told GB News. “The very fact that he can’t speak out on the subject and defend the BBC and define impartiality, as the chairman of the BBC, means he can’t do his job. So, I’m afraid he should go.”

Labour’s shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell has said Mr Sharp is “totally unable” to handle the Lineker crisis because he is compromised by the Johnson link investigation.

“His position is now increasingly untenable. I think he, at this stage, should be reflecting on whether he’s able to do that very important job,” she told Times Radio on Sunday.

She has written to culture secretary Lucy Frazer to demand that Mr Sharp’s position is “urgently clarified”, saying his involvement in arranging a loan for Mr Johnson has “profoundly damaged the perception of the BBC’s impartiality”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called on Mr Sharp to resign, saying there was a “dire need” for the BBC to “urgently protect their independence”.

It comes as Lineker’s son has said he thinks the sports presenter will return to Match Of The Day – but that he would not “back down on his word”, after he appeared to compare Tory language over small boats to 1930s Nazi Germany.

Director-general Tim Davie is also under pressure on the row, but insisted he would not quit. He hinted at a climbdown on Saturday, admitting BBC impartiality guidelines lacked clarity – adding that he wanted to “make sure he can come back on air”.

Several of the broadcaster’s other football shows were pulled at the last minute on Saturday as more presenters and reporters withdrew, with neither Football Focus nor Final Score airing – while 5 Live’s radio coverage was radically altered throughout the day.

Roger Mosey, former head of BBC TV News, also called for Mr Sharp to step down because he had “damaged the BBC’s credibility” and couldn’t lead on the Lineker row.

He tweeted: “Ideally, Lineker should stay within clear, agreed guidelines. And the BBC should send out its executives to be interviewed and explain how they intend to resolve this crisis.”

Baroness Wheatcroft, a crossbench peer on the Lords communications committee, said the BBC should “call for the suspension” of “clearly political” Mr Sharp.

“The problem is that the BBC has guidelines, but it doesn’t apply them fairly,” she told BBC Radio 4. “Guidelines only work if they are applied right across the board within the scope of the guidelines, and clearly the BBC has failed on that.”

Ms Powell called on Ms Frazer to detail any conversations she had with Mr Sharp, director-general Tim Davie and other BBC executives about Lineker’s suspension.

Lord Chris Patten, former chairman of the BBC Trust, said he was “surprised” by Mr Sharp’s silence during the furore and suggested he should “consider his position”.

Asked by the Sunday Times if he should resign, Lord Patton remarked: “Is the correct phrase, ‘I’m sure he’s considering his position’?”

BBC staff are said to have concerns about questions over the impartiality of Mr Sharp – who gave £400,000 to the Tory party – if Lineker is forced out. A senior BBC journalist told the newspaper that the chairman was a “lame duck who was unable to defend the BBC’s interests”.

Mr Davie, asked why Mr Sharp still had a job, said on Saturday: “The way in which the board is hired and that role is a different thing to editorially me running the BBC, making those decisions, trying to be fair, and getting a BBC that is truly impartial.”

Former BBC Sport chief Peter Salmon says Mr Davie – who has been in Washington – is “isolated” and needs to “come home and grip” the Lineker crisis.

But Mark Thompson, former director-general, urged patience with Mr Davie to sort out the mess, telling BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “On face of it, Gary Lineker’s tweet looks like technical breach of guidelines.”

But Mr Thompson acknowledged there was a “grey area” in play, saying his tweets on Tory policy was “not like a news presenter tearing up principles”.

Asked about Mr Sharp’s future, Mr Thompson said “the most sensible thing again is just calm down, ignore the papers and let the person who is doing the inquiry complete their inquiry” instead of making decisions “on the fly”.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt rowed back from demanding an apology for Lineker comments. Asked if he still thought the TV pundit should apologise, he told Sky News: “I don’t agree with his comments … but I don’t think it’s for me to decide how that issue is resolved.”

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told BBC Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “The Tories have obviously put a huge amount of pressure … to get rid of Gary Lineker. I don’t remember those same Tory MPs crying about impartiality when those revelations about Richard Sharp came out.”

But Tory MP Simon Clarke said “comparisons to the 1930s are deeply inappropriate and tasteless”. He said the BBC needed to “resolve the ambiguity” over impartiality rules on social media.