Richard Sharp: BBC chair was shareholder in firm awarded 600k while he was a No 10 adviser

Richard Sharp owns a multimillion pound stake in a healthcare company which was granted nearly 600,000 for Covid research while Sharp worked in Number 10, it has emerged.

Sharp, the chair of the BBC, is the second largest shareholder in Oncimmune, a cancer detection company which received funds in 2020 to help research Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. He was previously a director at the company.

Sharp, who has come under fire in recent days over allegations he helped facilitate an 800,000 loan for Boris Johnson, was working as an economic adviser in Downing Street at the time Oncimmunes grant was approved by UK Research and Innovation, which is part of the business department.

Nicholas Wilson, the anti-corruption campaigner who uncovered the shareholding, said: It is no surprise that a medical diagnostics company should have received a contract, but for Sharp to be a major shareholder just stinks.

A spokesperson for Sharp said: Richard Sharp has been a keen supporter of innovative approaches to tackling cancer and invested in Oncimmune, a leading cancer diagnostics company, when it spun out of Nottingham University.