The head of the BBC’s governing body faced calls to quit last night after she was accused of being “either incredibly naive or totally incompetent” when she was a non-executive director of HSBC.
Rona Fairhead’s future at the BBC was questioned by Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the public accounts committee, after the BBC Trust’s head said she had been unaware of allegations of widespread tax avoidance at HSBC’s Swiss arm at the time she chaired the bank’s audit committee.
Mrs Hodge said that she had lost all faith in Ms Fairhead as “the guardian of the BBC licence fee payers’ money” after her performance at HSBC. She added that if Ms Fairhead would not quit her job, ministers should intervene to sack her.
The confrontation