The Last Night of the Proms was already a pretty fraught affair, with one attendee received verbal abuse for turning down an EU beret. Flag wars raged of another sort high above the standing audience however, as a group of patriotic Tory MPs – including a couple of ministers – turned up to find themselves awkwardly sitting next to a box full of metropolitan BBC executives. They were “not very happy about it”…

Among the group were Richard Sharp and Fran Unsworth, who – despite avoiding another row about banning Rule, Britannia! – were sat with faces like they’d “licked p*ss off a nettle”. At one point a Tory MP thought they’d try lightening their mood by throwing a Union Jack flag into the neighbouring BBC box. Unsworth apparently recoiled from it, though Sharp did reluctantly pick it up. Presumably the MPs’ after party at a Secretary of State’s flat was a less awkward affair…

Guido’s disappointment at Charles Moore dropping out of the running to be new BBC Chairman has been dampened today by the news it has not, after all, gone to a raging lefty. Richard Sharp, who has today been revealed as the new Chairman, was an advisor to Boris as was Mayor of London, and to Rishi Sunak on the UK’s economic response to COVID-19. He was a member of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee from 2013 until 2019. Before dabbling in advising, Sharp was a banker at JP Morgan and then Goldman Sachs, where he was Rishi Sunak’s boss…

He has donated to the Tories in the past, although perhaps more importantly, since 2002, Sharp has been on the board of the Centre for Policy Studies. Interestingly, Sharp’s late father Lord Eric Sharp was appointed by Keith Joseph in 1980 to oversee the privatisation of Cable & Wireless. Lord Sharp also headed a Centre for Policy Studies Working Group and wrote for the Institute of Economic Affairs.

While people on the right are happy with the appointment, Alastair Campbell was less than happy, saying “Ex Goldman Sachs boss of, and lately assistant to, Sunak. The anti public service contingent really are getting all their people in on the inside now. Trump and Orban watch on in admiration”. Bad Al has some cheek, his days in Downing Street saw Quangos packed with Blairite cronies. Mark Reckless reminded him that Tony Blair appointed Gavyn Davies of Goldman Sachs as BBC Chairman from 2001 until 2004…