Lord Patten confirmed as 'preferred candidate' for BBC Trust chairman

Lord Patten has been confirmed as the government's "preferred candidate" to replace Sir Michael Lyons as chairman of the BBC Trust.

It was reported recently that culture secretary Jeremy Hunt had recommended Patten, who is Chancellor of Oxford University, to prime minister David Cameron.

Hunt has now written to John Whittingdale, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, to recommend the former Conservative Party chairman and governor of Hong Kong for the role.

The committee will hold a pre-appointment hearing with Patten on 10 March. It will then decide whether or not to proceed with the appointment.

Prospective candidates were interview by Hunt last month, with former Financial Times editor Sir Richard Lambert and ex-Radio Authority chairman Richard Hooper also tipped for the role.

If selected by the committee, Patten will take up the post in May following the end of Lyons' term on 30 April. Lyons, a former chief executive of Birmingham city council, took up the job in 2007 after Michael Grade's sudden move to ITV.

The new chairman will take over the role at the onset of significant budget cuts for the BBC, signalled by director general Mark Thompson's announcement in January that the corporation would need to make cuts of around 20 per cent – equal to around £400 million – over the next four years.

An agreement between the broadcaster and coalition government which formed part of last year's comprehensive spending review will see the licence fee frozen for six years. The broadcaster will also have to take over the cost of the World Service, BBC Monitoring and some of the costs of Welsh-language broadcaster S4C.

According to today's release, Patten will not undertake any interviews before the committee hearing in March.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).