True to form, comedian Joe Lycett had a brilliant response after it was revealed that Richard Sharp was stepping down as BBC chair following a report that found he breached the code on public appointments.
On Friday, it was confirmed that the corporation’s chairman would step down from his post at the end of June, following a probe incited by the revelation he had helped facilitate an £800,000 loan guarantee for former PM Boris Johnson before Sharp was recommended for the job.
Within one minute of the news being published on the BBC’s website, Joe had already fired off his take on Twitter, joking: “I have informed the BBC that I am very much available to be chairman.”
This was accompanied by a screenshot of the comic’s now-infamous appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC politics show last year, in which he ironically declared: “I’m actually very right-wing and I love it.”
In his statement announcing his intention to resign, Sharp admitted the report found he did not properly disclose his involvement in the facilitation of the loan guarantee to then-prime minister Johnson.
However, he insisted his breach was “inadvertent and not material”, and he was resigning to “prioritise the interests of the BBC”.
“I feel that this matter may well be a distraction from the corporation’s good work were I to remain in post until the end of my term,” he claimed.
In recent history, Joe Lycett has repeatedly made headlines thanks to his takedowns of the Conservative government.
This included taking numerous shots at former PM Liz Truss throughout her short tenure as leader, taking his trolling up a notch ahead of the launch of his Channel 4 show Late Night Lycett last month.