Business Secretary praises Doug Gurr's pro-growth agenda

Britain's competition regulator has tapped former Amazon UK chief Doug Gurr as preferred candidate for chair – a notable appointment given the watchdog's active investigations into major cloud providers.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said Gurr, as interim chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), had already heeded Prime Minister's Keir Starmer's advice to be more commercially minded.

"Under Doug Gurr's leadership as Interim Chair, the CMA is playing a key role in delivering the government's pro-growth agenda, ensuring the UK is a place where businesses can grow and invest with confidence," he said.

Gurr was appointed as interim chair of the CMA in January 2025 and has now been selected to complete a full five-year term following an open competition for the role.

The appointment may raise questions because Gurr's job history includes a four-year stint as head of Amazon UK. He started ...