I am confused by what David Davis’s new principles to ensure fair competition between Brexit Britain and the EU are supposed to achieve – especially the part on consumer protection. The Dexeu secretary said:
‘The UK will continue to be a leading advocate of open investment flows after we leave the EU. But it cannot be that an EU company could merge with a UK company and significantly reduce consumer choice’.
Does this mean that he and the Government now regret the sale of our airports, trains, airlines, telecom companies, energy suppliers and so on to huge businesses from Spain, Germany, France and the rest of the EU? Is he saying that the Competition and Markets Authority, created by the coalition government, doesn’t already have the powers to prevent takeovers that harm competition and damage consumers? Is this a coded threat to the rest of the EU that if Brexit talks go badly the UK Government will shut EU companies out of the important UK market? Or is it a tedious truism, that any future Tory government would do its best to protect households from the rapacious habits of over-mighty companies? Answers, please!
I am clearer on why Davis also made the argument for both the EU and an independent UK to continue to oppose state subsidies of businesses – given that there is a respectable case that subsidies distort competition, harming both consumers and innovation.
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