Cameron Pfizer stance attacked

Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband attacked UK prime minister David Cameron for acting as a "cheerleader" for Pfizer’s bid for London-based AstraZeneca.

“David Cameron is in totally the wrong place on this issue,” Miliband told BBC’s Andrew Marr TV programme yesterday. “He has become a cheerleader for Pfizer’s takeover when instead he should be championing AstraZeneca’s long-term plan.”

With only a year to go before the next general election, Cameron’s Conservative-led government is trying to avoid interfering in the proposed bid while acting to protect UK jobs and the future of British science. AstraZeneca’s board rejected Pfizer’s £63.1bn (€76.7bn) sweetened offer for the UK’s second-biggest drugmaker on May 2.

Miliband wrote a letter to Cameron yesterday to set out his concerns, saying a more thorough review is needed to determine if the takeover is in Britain’s economic interest.

“We need a more substantive assessment of whether this takeover is in the national economic interest before the UK government allows itself to be seen to be supporting it,” Miliband said in the letter, released by his office. Future takeovers should face “a stronger public interest test,” he said.

In January 2010, the then-Conservative opposition used Kraft Foods’ takeover of candy maker Cadbury to portray a Labour government that was out of touch with the British people. An ICM Research poll commission by the Telegraph newspaper yesterday showed Labour’s lead over the Tories has narrowed to one point, with Miliband gaining 32% of votes in a general election and Cameron 31%. ICM interviewed 2,001 people online between April 30 and May 1.

“AstraZeneca has a fantastic role in the British economy,” Cameron told reporters on May 2.