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Ministers have forced the head of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority to resign, as the government seeks to roll back regulation as part of Labour's growth agenda.
The government will announce the departure of Markus Bukerinic as head of the regulator on Tuesday evening after Business Minister Jonathan Reynolds intervened, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bokerinck, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, is appointed in 2022. CMA chairs can serve for up to five years.
The Ministry of Business and Trade made it clear to Pokerinic on Monday evening that it felt the regulator was not focusing enough on growth, according to a government figure.
The government appointed Doug Gore as the new interim head of the Capital Markets Authority.
Gore ran Amazon's UK business while the company struggled with the CMA over a minority investment in Deliveroo, which the regulator eventually approved in 2020. He is currently director of the Natural History Museum in London.
Bokerinck could not immediately be reached for comment. The Capital Markets Authority and the Business Department did not immediately comment.
The competition regulator has been the focus of complaints to Labor ministers from senior business leaders, who are frustrated by what they see as an overly interventionist approach to deals.
“We know the (Capital Markets Authority) has not performed well enough. There is a lot of frustration about this across the board,” said one government figure. “We are hearing unhappiness from everyone.”
The CMA came under fire from Microsoft in 2023 over its handling of the tech giant's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Agency He eventually agreed to the deal between the two US-based companies after initially seeking to be blocked.
Tom Smith, competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and former legal director of the CMA, said Pokerinic's replacement “came as a surprise” to competition lawyers. “The government appears to be sending a strong signal, especially with regard to merger control. It is tempting to say that now is the right time to submit a merger application to the Capital Markets Authority.”
In October last year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also targeted the body A speech to business leadersHe told them he would “make sure that every regulator in this country, especially the economic and competition regulators, takes growth as seriously as this chamber does.”
Eleven members of the CMA's 33-member merger panel, an independent group of experts that decides whether any deal that might threaten competition, can go ahead, are due to step down later this year. The Business Department appoints their replacements.
One government figure said it was reasonable to assume that more of the new committee members would have a business background.
