BBC Chairman Richard Sharp is to appear before the DCMS Select Committee in early February to answer questions about the Sunday Times report on him and Boris.

Guido reckons that last week the Sunday Times got over excited about a shadowy conspiracy, based around a shady dinner at Chequers, which they reported was held before Richard Sharp was appointed chairman of the BBC. The strong implication of the piece (and it was written with only the implication rather than any proof) was that there must have been a quid pro quo. Unfortunately for them Richard Sharp has now checked his diary – the dinner was in May 2021, after he had been made BBC chairman – months after the appointment process was completed in February 2021. Pogrund is a good reporter, this error is a rare slip up which has set a hare running… into a brick wall.

Sharp confirms he dined with Johnson and Blyth at Chequers. However, he says it was May 21 — after the loan was finalised in Feb 21.

We initially said it was before, after one party confirmed this & the other refused to comment.

Happy to make his post-publication position clear https://t.co/g8jbwBdtyt

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) January 24, 2023

Since Sharp is always framed in the media as a Tory supporter, Guido suggests that the Committee ask him if he has made donations to any other political parties (he has), whether he supported any Labour candidates financially, for example if he gave money to Gerard Coyne’s campaign to become the Unite General Secretary. The DCMS Select Committee could be revelatory in unanticipated ways…