The UK Competition Reform Bill, which had been expected to make sweeping changes to merger control processes, is likely to be shelved, according to one source familiar with its legislative progress and another citing briefings.

Unveiled as a priority in the King’s Speech on 13 May, the Bill’s rationale would have been to improve the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) “accountability to Parliament, businesses and the public”.

However, there has been significant political change in the interim. Sir Keir Starmer has stood down as prime minister, with former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham taking his place at the head of the Labour government.

This Bill is not a priority for Burnham and his team, the first source said.

Plans for the Bill emerged in January, with the Department for Business and Trade (since rebranded under Burnham as the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, or BIST) kicking off a consultation on the UK’s competition regime.

At the time, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was spearheading a drive to make UK regulators more growth focused.

Labour had undertaken several key changes at the CMA since coming to office in July 2024. It appointed former Amazon executive Doug Gurr as chair; issued a Strategic Steer to the authority to adopt a more accommodative, pro-growth stance; and supported CEO Sarah Cardell’s rollout of the “4Ps” – pace, predictability, proportionality and process.

A proposal within the January 2026 consultation to go even further by replacing the CMA’s current independent panel system for in-depth merger reviews with a board sub-committee became a key point of contention among City of London lawyers.

Indeed, it was described by one senior London-based competition lawyer as a “half-baked scheme”, amid widespread concern about potential political interference on merger cases brought before the CMA.

With Labour having already “defanged” the CMA and reduced the volume of complaints from major corporates, the government should focus on larger strategic problems and not get bogged down in governance changes at the watchdog, one competition lawyer said.

But the government’s move to axe the Bill should not be mistaken as flowing from an understanding of City lawyers’ concerns that further CMA changes would be counterproductive to growth goals, the first source said. A shift in political priorities from Starmer to Burnham is the sole reason for abandoning the Bill, this source added.

It is hardly a surprise to see Westminster “acting, or not acting, for the wrong reasons”, said one Magic Circle antitrust partner who had criticised the Bill.

The CMA directed queries from this news service to BIST, which did not reply to requests for comment.