UK: Get to know Andrew Tyrie, new CMA chair

Andrew Tyrie, the former chair of the UK’s Treasury select committee, has been appointed head of Britain’s competition watchdog.

Tyrie served under Michael Howard as a shadow Treasury spokesman in opposition from 2003-05, but was not appointed to the front bench by former Prime Minister David Cameron. For the bulk of his House of Commons career, Tyrie was a prominent member of the backbench select committees that scrutinise government activities.

During his seven years as head of the Treasury Committee, Tyrie presided over investigations into UK banking scandals including the Libor-rigging saga that emerged in 2012 and ultimately cost Barclays’ former chief executive Bob Diamond and the bank’s chief operating officer Jerry del Missier their jobs.

Tyrie was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Chichester from 1997 until he stood down in 2017. Shortly before doing so, he had been ramping up pressure on large auditors, calling for an investigation into the advice provided by KPMG to banking giant HBOS in the run-up to the financial crisis. He said at the time it was “clear that the audit process was an important part of the story of HBOS’s failure.”

His appointment is subject to approval by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee. If approved, he will immediately succeed current CMA chair David Currie.

Ahead of his appointment, Tyrie will participate in a pre-appointment hearing with the business, energy and industrial strategy select committee.

CV

Born 15 January 1957, Rochford, Essex

Education Felsted School; Trinity College, Oxford; College of Europe, Bruges; Wolfson College, Cambridge

Career Special adviser to chancellors Nigel Lawson and John Major; senior economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; MP for Chichester since 1997

Interests Running, golf (occasionally), classical music.

Full Content: The Guardian

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