Will the BBC chairman go after Lineker row?

Day five and the Gary Lineker row shows no sign of abating any time soon. The BBC has gone into meltdown; the Prime Minister has been forced to distance himself. Lineker’s show Match of the Day was shortened to a mere 20 minutes without commentary, with his co-stars boycotting the programme in ‘solidarity.’ Faced with a staff mutiny and a 200,000-strong petition to reinstate Lineker, how on earth does the Beeb’s management sort this one out?

One possible victim of the row is not Lineker but the BBC chairman Richard Sharp. There is an ongoing KC-led review into his appointment as BBC chairman and whether he failed to properly disclose details of his involvement in the facilitation of an £800,000 loan guarantee for the then PM Boris Johnson. Sharp has denied any involvement in the arrangement of a loan for Johnson but he is facing growing pressure to resign. Lord Patten, who chaired the BBC Trust from 2011 to 2014, has today joined that band of critics, telling the Sunday Times that he was ‘surprised’ by Sharp’s silence during the furore and that he should now ‘consider his position’.