UK Minister To State CMA Must Be ‘Less Risk Averse’

Labour’s intervention in the regulatory and governance activities of British watchdogs, is to be on show again this week.

Reuters reported that business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is expected to set out a new ‘strategic steer’ for the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) on Thursday.

It comes after Jonathan Reynolds last month announced that CMA chair Marcus Bokkerink was stepping down after leading the British competition regulator since 2022.

Bokkerink was replaced by interim CMA Chair Doug Gurr – a former country manager of Amazon UK and President of Amazon China.

Growth focus

Media outlets at the time noted that Marcus Bokkerink had been effectively ousted by the Business Secretary, despite embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying at the time he had “resigned” so a new chair could be found in line with the government’s new strategic direction.

Matters were not helped after Bokkerink in a statement had bluntly warned against competition authorities becoming “vulnerable to short term expediency or vested interests”.

The Labour Government has sought to focus on growth after Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed her deeply unpopular budget last October that announced record tax increases for British citizens and businesses.

Since then, the Labour government has repeatedly said growing the economy is their number one priority, and it has been critical of regulation.

The Prime Minister, along with the Chancellor and Business Secretary had reportedly written to watchdogs including the CMA, Ofgem, and Ofwat on Christmas Eve telling them to remove barriers to economic growth.

CMA direction

Now Reuters reported that Jonathan Reynolds will demand the country’s competition watchdog be “more agile” and “less risk averse” to support the government’s pro-growth agenda, his office ahead of his speech on Thursday at Samsung’s headquarters.

The steer will “direct them (the CMA) to be more focused on creating an agile, competitive business environment in the UK with less burdensome regulation,” the statement added.

The CMA will also be told to focus on speeding up its decision-making process.

Despite the concern about the UK’s growth prospects, a PwC survey of global CEOs last month ranked the United Kingdom as the second most as most attractive country for investment (surpassing Germany, China and India), but behind the United States.

However it is not clear how much that ranking was because of the policies of the previous Conservative government.