Merck and AstraZeneca’s withdrawal from UK investment is a warning signal to Rachel Reeves – but is she listening? Asks Oliver Dean

Both AstraZeneca and Merck’s decision to abandon their respective UK expansions is more than a corporate setback. It is a catastrophic loss of jobs, investment and future innovation and the public are now poorer as a result. Time and again, the government has boasted that it is pro-growth and pro-business, but unless it changes course on its economic strategy, more and more firms will abandon Britain, and more and more people will be worse off.

As many have pointed out, Merck’s decision did not come out of the blue. For years, the life sciences sector has warned that Britain undervalues medicines and punishes success. Sir John Bell, a leading British scientist, hit the nail on the head when he argued that Britain has, “great science in academia” and “great biotech companies,” but without large businesses properly committing,........

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