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Former BBC chair Rona Fairhead given ministerial post Former BBC chair Rona Fairhead given ministerial post
(about 1 hour later)
Rona Fairhead, who resigned after four months as the chair of the BBC Trust, has been appointed as an international trade minister with a life peerage, Downing Street has announced. The former chair of the BBC Trust Rona Fairhead has been appointed as an international trade minister with a life peerage, Downing Street has announced.
Fairhead will replace Lord Price, the former Waitrose boss who quit after just a year as a trade policy minister. Lady Fairhead will replace Mark Price, the former Waitrose boss who quit after just a year as the trade policy minister. The MP Greg Hands has taken over the policy role, and Fairhead’s title will be minister for trade and export promotion.
Fairhead was the chief executive of the Financial Times group before taking on the BBC role, from which she resigned after Theresa May indicated she would have to apply again for the job she was appointed to by David Cameron.Fairhead was the chief executive of the Financial Times group before taking on the BBC role, from which she resigned after Theresa May indicated she would have to apply again for the job she was appointed to by David Cameron.
No 10 also announced that Theodore Agnew, the businessman and Tory donor who was the sponsor of the Inspiration Trust academy chain, will become a minister in the Department for Education and get a life peerage. Both posts will be unpaid.No 10 also announced that Theodore Agnew, the businessman and Tory donor who was the sponsor of the Inspiration Trust academy chain, will become a minister in the Department for Education and get a life peerage. Both posts will be unpaid.
Agnew was a key ally of the former education secretary Michael Gove during his time in the coalition government. Gove is now the environment secretary.Agnew was a key ally of the former education secretary Michael Gove during his time in the coalition government. Gove is now the environment secretary.
More details soon … Fairhead’s appointment to the ministerial role will come as a surprise to many after she was effectively forced out by May after she became prime minister last summer.
Cameron’s decision to ask Fairhead to stay on as chair of the BBC Trust during the corporation’s transition to being governed by a single, powerful board was criticised by some, who thought the corporation’s governance needed a fresh start.
Her short tenure drew disapproval from within the BBC for reportedly failing to effectively defend the broadcaster during the negotiations leading up to the white paper on BBC charter renewal. In particular, she was criticised for agreeing to an 11th-hour financial settlement in July 2015 which forced the BBC to shoulder the cost of supplying free TV licences to the over-75s, previously funded by the taxpayer.
She was replaced by Sir David Clementi as BBC chair under a new governance structure which saw the trust abolished and replaced with a unitary board.
Fairhead was the chair of HSBC’s audit committee when the bank admitted to “past compliance and control failures” in the group when it was mired in a tax avoidance row uncovered by the Guardian’s HSBC files investigation.
Under questions from the culture, media and sport select committee in parliament, Fairhead defended her role at HSBC, but admitted to failings related to the record-breaking $1.9bn fine levied on the bank by US authorities in relation to money-laundering in its Mexican branch.
The Labour MP Margaret Hodge, then chair of the Commons’ public accounts committee, said Fairhead should resign from her BBC post following the HSBC revelations. She said Fairhead’s claims she did not know about what was happening at the bank meant she should not be “the guardian of BBC licence fee payers’ money”.
Fairhead will replace Price in the department of the international trade secretary, Liam Fox. Price quit in early September, voicing doubts about the government’s direction on Brexit. He said voting to leave the EU had been “a symptom of people’s concerns about their day-to-day problems. Brexit will not solve those problems.”
The academy chain Inspiration Trust, which is chaired by Agnew, has announced he will stand down as its chair following his appointment.
The Norfolk businessman has donated more than £100,000 to the Tories and served as a non-executive director at the DfE during the coalition, as chairman of its academies board.
Announcing Fairhead’s appointment, Fox said: “As we forge closer trading links with new markets and respond to the massive appetite for British goods and services across different sectors, Baroness Fairhead’s focus and wealth of business experience will help us get more UK companies exporting.”
Fairhead said Brexit was “a time of unprecedented new opportunities for UK trade … I am keen to help ever more UK businesses capture the global demand for their goods and their services. I look forward to working with companies across the UK to forge a culture of success in exports in businesses large and small.”