Your commercial news round-up: Bank of England, strikes, Sadiq Khan, Diane Abbott, Microsoft and the CMA

Reading time: six minutes

This week’s round-up isn’t one to miss, with some familiar favourites (strikes), as well as the latest commercial developments. The Bank of England is facing criticism as a result of comments made by its chief economist, while Sadiq Khan’s popularity continues to fade in London and Labour politician Diane Abbott apologises over antisemitic comments. Plus, an exciting development for those interested in competition or commercial law, as Microsoft comes to blow with the Competition Market Authority.

• The Bank of England (BoE) has come under fire due to insensitive comments made by chief economist Huw Pill. Speaking on a podcast produced by Columbia Law School, Pill stated: “So somehow in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices, whether higher wages or passing the energy costs through on to customers.”
  
  His “out of touch” comments have drawn criticism of belittling the current cost-of-living crisis. This comes as it was revealed that UK families now face 17.3% grocery inflation in supermarkets. And it’s not the first time the BoE has received negative press over such comments; governor Andrew Bailey was extensively critiqued in 2022 after saying that workers shouldn’t ask for big pay rises. Bailey’s salary was a huge £495,000 in the year to 28 February 2022, while Pill has been paid £88,000 for his first five months and 24 days at the BoE alone.
   
• Teachers, nurses and HMRC are all set to strike in May and June. Teaching unions across the UK have accused the government of refusing to negotiate as members of the National Education Union (NEU) enter their fifth strike day today (27 April). Dr Mary Bousted, co-head of the NEU Union, apologised to parents on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme stating: “This isn’t what the NEU wants to do, it’s not what its members want to do, but I think parents have to consider that every day, now, there is an ongoing crisis in our schools.”
  
  Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is facing legal action from the government over its planned 48-hour strike this weekend. This follows RCN members declining the government’s NHS pay offer around 10 days ago, leading the union to announce more strike action and seek further discussions. Government action is led by health secretary Steve Barclay, who’s written to RCN leaders stating that their plans for industrial action “go beyond the mandate you secured from your members”. His full statement was made via Twitter on 24 April.
  
  In addition to industrial action by healthcare workers and teachers, more than 400 workers from HMRC will go on strike for 18 days in May and June according to the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union. The strike is over pay, pensions, job security and redundancy terms. Commenting on the planned strikes, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Our hard-working members in HMRC are fed up with being treated with disdain by a government that doesn’t seem to care about its own staff.”
   
• A recent poll by City Hall has revealed that 50% of Londoners believe that Sadiq Khan is doing “badly”, and a third of those said he’s doing “very badly”. Notably, 81% of Londoners aged over 65 answered that he’s doing “badly” or “very badly”. The survey was undertaken by YouGov and 1,107 adults in the capital participated. Only 35% of those surveyed said that they felt Khan was doing “well”, a three-point drop from the last round of polling on the mayor completed in January 2022.
  
  ​The poll coincides with criticism over the mayor’s plan to expand London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, which hopes to lower air pollution in the city. As it stands, the policy’s facing a judicial review brought on by four conservative MPs. When asked about how they felt Khan was handling specific issues:
   
  • 65% said “badly” on housing;
  • 62% said “badly” on crime; and
  • 55% said “badly” on transport.

Markedly, Londoners aged 18 to 24 were more positive with 40% saying Khan was doing “well”.

• Continuing with the political news, Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer has branded comments made by former shadow minister Diane Abbott as antisemitic. Abbott was swiftly suspended following her suggestion that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people weren’t subject to racism "all their lives". She’s since apologised and withdrawn the remarks which were published in the Observer newspaper.
  
  When pushed to answer if he felt Abbott's comments showed prejudice towards Jewish people, Starmer stated: "In my view, what she said was to be condemned, it was antisemitic." He further noted that the pace with which Abbott was removed confirmed "how far the Labour party has changed" and that Labour has "zero tolerance" of antisemitism. This disclaimer is likely the result of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, published in 2020 and continued criticism of Labour’s handling of antisemitism within the party.
  
  In her apology letter, Abbott wrote: "Racism takes many forms, and it’s completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others." She remains suspended from the party until further investigations have taken place.
   
• In the tech world, Microsoft has been blocked from an attempted acquisition of Activation Blizzard (a gaming company) by the Competition Market Authority (CMA). The development company is behind a number of hugely successful games, from Call of Duty to Candy Crush Saga, and Microsoft’s $70 billion (£65 billion) purchase would’ve been the largest in gaming history. However, unless both companies can influence a tribunal to overturn the ban on appeal, the agreement is dead globally. The CMA’s decision was originally thought to be based on the fact that Microsoft could harm the console market by withholding or creating a diminished version of Call of Duty for Sony’s market-leading PlayStation console. Microsoft offered a deal to guarantee it’d remain on other platforms for at least 10 years and the CMA accepted that promise. However, in a shock move from the CMA, it still blocked the deal, citing that the acquisition would give Microsoft “undue power to shape the nascent field of cloud gaming”.

Check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up.    

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