Britain must not sell off its crown jewels

FIRST the good news. The £21billion merger of the London Stock Exchange with its German rival Deutsche Boerse is a ringing endorsement of Britain’s economic future.

It is also further proof of just how wrong the Project Fear doom-mongers were in predicting that a Leave vote would cause confidence to collapse.

But that aside, the Mail has serious doubts about whether losing a business which has been the cornerstone of our free-trading economy for centuries is in this country’s best interests.

While the deal is billed as a merger, in reality the Germans have the upper hand. The new firm will be run by the boss of the Frankfurt exchange, whose shareholders would hold 54.4 per cent of the stock, and report its profits in euros.

We are told it will keep its London headquarters, but in previous deals such promises have been cynically broken before the ink is dry.

Thankfully, in Theresa May, we finally have a Prime Minister who recognises the need for an industrial strategy that stops our crown jewels being sold abroad. When she launched her campaign for the Tory leadership, she cited the takeover attempt two years ago by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer of the UK’s AstraZeneca.

‘A proper industrial strategy’ she said, ‘should be capable of stepping in to defend a sector as important as pharmaceuticals.’ She is absolutely right.

Given the EU is already investigating the LSE deal on competition grounds, why aren’t UK regulators – or for that matter ministers – also calling it in?

The Mail is a firm believer in the power of free markets to create and spread wealth. But no other country would allow such a precious national asset to fall into foreign hands, so why should Britain?