Ministers force out chair of UK’s competition regulator

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Ministers have forced the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority to resign, as the government looks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.

According to people familiar with the matter, the government will announce the departure of Marcus Boekerink as regulator chair on Tuesday evening after an intervention by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

Bokkerink, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, was appointed in 2022. CMA chairs may serve up to a five-year term.

The Department of Trade and Commerce made clear to Bakkering on Monday evening that it felt the regulator was not focused enough on growth, according to an official figure.

The government has appointed Doug Gurr as the new interim chairman of the CMA. Gurr, a former country manager for Amazon UK, is currently director of the Natural History Museum in London.

Bokarink could not immediately be reached for comment. The CMA and the Business Department did not immediately comment.

The competition regulator has become the focus of complaints from business leaders to Labor ministers, frustrated by what they see as an overly intrusive approach to contracts.

“We know that [the CMA’s] Performance has not been good enough. There is a lot of frustration with this across the board from the business side,” said an official. “We’re hearing from everyone about the illness.”

CMA has come under fire from Microsoft for its 2023 acquisition of tech giant Activision Blizzard. organization Finally ratify the agreement After two US-based businesses initially tried to block it.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also took aim at the body in October last year A speech by business leadersTelling them he would “make sure that every regulator in this country, especially our economic and competition regulators, takes growth as seriously as this room”.

Eleven members of the 33-member CMA merger panel, an independent group of experts who decide whether any deal that threatens competition can go ahead, are set to resign later this year. The business department is responsible for appointing their replacements.

A government figure said it was reasonable to assume that panel members would have more of a business background.