Former BBC head who quit after four months appointed government minister
1 min read
A former chair of the BBC Trust who quit after Theresa May said she would have to re-apply for the job has been appointed a minister.
Rona Fairhead will replace Lord Price, the former Waitrose boss who quit after just a year as International Trade minister.
Her appointment comes alongside former Tory donor and critic of grammar schools Sir Theodore Agnew, who is set to take a role in the Department for Education following the departure of Lord Nash.
Both are to be given life peerages, despite the Prime Minister criticism in April of “unelected Lords” who could disrupt the Brexit process.
Ms Fairhead resigned from her BBC post a year ago, shortly after David Cameron renewed her contract.
The former Prime Minister asked the ex-Financial Times chief executive to stay on in the role during the corporation’s move to being governed by a single board.
However, the move was reversed by Theresa May when she entered Number 10 following criticism from MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, who branded the appointment “unusual” given the change in the role.
The Public Accounts Committee had also hit out at Ms Fairhead in 2015, calling on her to resign from the broadcaster's board because of her role as a non-executive of HSBC, which was then at the centre of a tax avoidance storm.
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