Chairman’s concern after alleged effort to bar editor

The BBC chairman has defended the corporation’s recruitment process after a board member with government links reportedly tried to block an appointment, while the director general emphasised that impartiality was “sacrosanct”.

The BBC chair, Richard Sharp, insisted it was right for concerns to be raised after Robbie Gibb, a BBC board member and former Downing Street communications director, under Theresa May, reportedly warned against appointing Jess Brammar as new head of BBC news channels.

Brammar, a former HuffPost UK editor, was appointed to the job despite stories in which some newspapers examined her social media history and scrutinised her defence of HuffPost journalists against criticism from ministers.

Questioned by the Commons culture, media and sport committee, Sharp said many people misunderstood the role of non-executive directors, like Gibb, in the BBC’s structure; they were not simply semidetached regulators.

Gibb had allegedly texted the BBC’s director for news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, to say recruiting Brammar would destroy the government’s “fragile trust” in the corporation.

Sharp, who became BBC chairman in February, said: “In any corporation of any kind there should be free and clear communication between the non-executive directors and directors, all seeking the same objective, which is for the corporation to succeed and thrive, and make the right decisions. One of the things that is absolutely necessary is that if people have information they think is relevant to critical decisions they communicate between each other. But what shouldn’t happen is that the non-executive director should make the decision.”

The BBC board supported the appointment of Brammar, Sharp said. Asked if this was also the case for Gibb, he replied “yes”.

Under questioning from the Labour MP Kevin Brennan, Sharp labelled coverage of Gibb’s reported objections as “supposition” but declined to say whether or not it was accurate, citing privacy.

He rejected Brennan’s idea that people should be concerned about government interference in the BBC, given Gibb’s role plus Sharp’s donations to the Conservative party in the past and the fact that Tim Davie, the BBC director general, once stood to be a Tory councillor. Davie said: “When you enter the building – I’ve put it as my number one priority and you can debate how I’m doing on that – impartiality is sacrosanct.”