UK CMA Plans Job Cuts After Finding ‘Historic Budget Issue’

(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s antitrust regulator is planning to cut around 10% of its workforce over a “budget issue,” after a week of turmoil that’s seen its chairman involved in a high profile ouster.

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The Competition and Markets Authority has offered voluntary exits to its staff because of an overspend in the budget, the watchdog confirmed. The agency employs close to 1,200 people.

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“This is an historic budget issue which has been addressed swiftly and appropriately,” a CMA spokesperson said. “The CMA is fully focused on its priorities for the coming year including working with the government and the new interim chair to help deliver growth.”

The Financial Times reported the move earlier.

The UK government earlier this week ousted the CMA’s chair as ministers pushed the message that regulators must do more do facilitate economic growth. Marcus Bokkerink was replaced by former Amazon.com Inc executive Doug Gurr on an interim basis.

The clash saw Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves say that Bokkerink stepped down because he knew it was time to “make way for someone who does share the mission” of the Labour government.

The CMA’s chief executive officer Sarah Cardell told staff at a town-hall meeting that it won’t cut staff from its merger unit and its new digital markets unit that focuses on tackling Big Tech dominance.

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Earlier on Thursday the CMA hit Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. with investigations over concerns their dominance in mobile services is distorting the market and putting up barriers to entry for competitors.

(Updates with details of CMA’s staff meeting in the last paragraph.)

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