Has Vince had another Murdoch moment?
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Vince Cable yesterday gave the clearest indication yet of his attitude to the £35bn tie-up between the British defence group BAE Systems and the European aerospace giant Eads.
At a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats' conference in Brighton, the Business Secretary said he couldn't comment directly on the takeover, which may be subject to "quasi-judicial" review by him, but that his view was "I don't worry about foreign ownership".
His intervention had unfortunate echoes of the occasion two years ago when he was secretly recorded attacking Rupert Murdoch – at a time when he was due to adjudicate on the media mogul's bid for BSkyB. The Business Secretary was subsequently stripped of responsibility for deciding on the bid.
His remarks came as Eads – which owns Airbus – said it was on track to meet a 10 October deadline for providing further details on plans to forge the world's largest arms firm. The parliamentary defence committee has also launched an inquiry into the proposed merger.
Dismissing what he called "emotion about foreign takeovers", Mr Cable pointed out that Eads already had many employees in the UK. He praised the investment made in UK manufacturing by foreign firms such as Tata and Nissan. Even more tellingly, he also paid tribute to Kraft's continuing investment in Cadbury which was subject to a controversial takeover in 2010.
The proposed BAE-Eads deal is fraught with political complications. As well as the UK holding a "golden share" in BAE allowing it to stand in the way of foreign bidders, France and Germany are both major shareholders in Eads, each owning 22.5 per cent, while Spain has 5.5 per cent.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments