This vote was rigged by vulture speculators. For the Mail, this is the modern, unacceptable face of capitalism

WHEN the takeover of GKN by asset strippers at Melrose first raised its ugly head in January, panjandrums in the City and Whitehall saw it as a foregone conclusion.

Not the Mail. This paper argued – and still emphatically maintains – that the tearing up of this 259-year- old colossus, and its likely sale to foreign predators, would be bad for Britain’s national defences and engineering industry.

So we take some pride in the narrowness with which shareholders voted yesterday – by 52 per cent to 48 – to approve the deal.

But what is utterly immoral is that this vote was all but rigged by vulture speculators. They bought up a quarter of GKN’s shares in the last few weeks to enable them to vote on the deal and make a quick killing. Not that they could care less about the future of Britain, or the long-term health of GKN and its 58,000 workers.

Yesterday these fly- by- night hedge funds got their reward when the share price duly went up, netting them an estimated £172million. For their part, the bosses of Melrose stand to make a disgusting £285million.

The Mail believes this is the modern, unacceptable face of capitalism and the sooner the City changes the rules so only long- term shareholders can vote on takeovers, the better.

However, all is not lost. For last night it was clear that the national security aspects of the deal have not been fully considered, and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is lobbying hard to protect a company upon which the military relies.

What happens next will be a major test for the deeply unimpressive Business Secretary Greg Clark. Will he listen to Mr Williamson and to the Prime Minister, who has spoken eloquently of the need to restrict predatory takeovers?

Or will he roll over to the get-rich-quick merchants and hand Jeremy Corbyn another weapon in his Marxist assault on free markets? Over to you, Mr Clark.