MPs attack Melrose bosses over £7bn GKN bid

BOSSES of the City firm making a hostile swoop for British defence giant GKN were attacked by MPs yesterday for failing to guarantee to protect the firm’s research spending, jobs and pensions.

Melrose’s Simon Peckham, Christopher Miller and David Roper – who each made about £40million last year – were accused of having a lack of commitment to the 259-year-old business they hope to buy for £7.4billion. Appearing before the business energy and industrial strategy committee investigating the proposed takeover, they were criticised for failing to make pledges on GKN’s future.

Chairman Rachel Reeves said Melrose had made no obligations that would allow it to be ‘held account for anything you do in the future’. GKN employs 6,000 in the UK. Its board has called the takeover bid opportunistic and cheap. Melrose’s strategy is to buy firms and sell them on within five years, leading to concerns it will harm GKN, UK industry and national security.

Sixteen MPs have signed a letter calling on Business Secretary Greg Clark to block the bid.

IT was a moment of startling truth. Yesterday the City sharks trying to buy GKN – one of our oldest and best engineering companies – admitted under questioning by a Commons committee that they could give no undertaking to protect jobs, pensions, or research funding.

So there we have it. The technology and innovation that made this company great won’t be guaranteed if the sale to Melrose goes through – and neither will the jobs and pensions of thousands of staff.

It’s patently obvious Melrose bosses want to strip the company’s assets, break it up and sell off the pieces – almost certainly to foreigners. This is why 16 MPs have put their names to a letter urging Business Secretary Greg Clark to veto the takeover.

GKN is exactly the sort of cutting-edge company Britain will need in the postBrexit era. Allowing it to fall prey to these get-rich-quick predators would be an act of national self-harm.