Tim Walker

Mandrake

Vacant Chair

Notwithstanding the fact he was once temporarily suspended from the Labour Party for making allegedly Islamophobic comments, Sir Trevor Phillips – who formerly presided over the London Assembly and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and is now best known for fronting his eponymous Sky News show – is the hot tip to take over as Chair of the BBC in the new year.

The small matter of the job being occupied by Samir Shah – a Rishi Sunak appointee – is expected to be resolved with an amicable statement wishing him well as he moves on to pursue new challenges.

In reality, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was dismayed by how Shah held up the corporation’s admission of error after Donald Trump threatened to sue over Panorama’s misleading edits of one of this speeches – a delay that caused the story to get dangerously out of hand – and few, if any, in Government were impressed by his weasley performances before various select committees.

Mandrake’s sources say the plan is to have Phillips come on board as an executive chair with more hands-on control over the BBC – it is currently a non-executive position – and, with Tim Davie’s recent resignation as Director-General, Nandy wants to see that his successor either splits the role (with one individual overseeing programmes and another policy and politics) or has a deputy with journalistic nous.