Time to acquire some backbone, Minister

WHAT a truly pathetic performance from the man who is supposed to be in charge of protecting this country’s key strategic industries.

After two months of silence, Business Secretary Greg Clark, a minister utterly out of his depth, has finally intervened in the GKN takeover battle – but too late to affect the outcome.

True, he extracted some flimsy assurances from hostile bidders Melrose about investing in GKN and holding on to its vital aerospace division for at least five years.

But with just a day to go before the voting deadline, it’s a pointless gesture.

Nearly all the votes have been cast and Melrose (whose four senior directors stand to make an obscene £285million from the deal) may already have won.

If they have, Mr Clark will go down in history as the minister who stood by while one of Britain’s greatest engineering firms was torn apart by corporate predators.

Yet the Mail still hopes this disaster can be averted.

We have campaigned passionately to save GKN – and not just for sentimental reasons. Yes, it made cannonballs for Waterloo and Spitfires for the Battle of Britain but it remains at the cutting edge of technology in the crucial defence, aerospace and automotive industries.

And it’s exactly the sort of company Britain will need to succeed in the postBrexit world. But if we hadn’t taken up its cause, this shabby deal would have gone through with barely a ripple of protest. So what can Mr Clark do to make amends for his woeful failings so far?

He must know these Melrose assurances aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. It may take a little longer but GKN will still be asset- stripped, broken up and the pieces sold off to the highest bidders – putting 58,000 employees and their pensions at huge risk.

So if the bid does succeed tomorrow, Mr Clark should show the moral courage to veto it on national security grounds. This power has been exercised several times in recent years to protect other defence and aerospace-related companies.

GKN is at least as important to our national security as any of them.

And one thing is certain. The law must be changed to deter the vultures who buy huge amounts of stock in companies targeted for takeover, help swing the vote in favour of the deal, then cash in with huge profits when it goes through. (Significantly, 25 per cent of GKN shares have been acquired by speculators in the two months since the Melrose bid was announced.)

If voting were restricted to those who had held shares for six months or more, this problem could be ameliorated.

The battle for GKN is a test of the Government’s competence, as well as its resolve to defend British industry.

Our craven, and frankly cowardly, Business Secretary needs to acquire some backbone – and soon.