The government must step in and stop this reckless merger and Unite is building a cross-party coalition to demand they do so.” “On top of that, it will hike people’s bills and mean job losses for Vodafone and Three workers. Gail Cartmail, the executive head of operations at Unite, said: “This deal will give a company with deep ties to the Chinese state an even more prominent place at the heart of the UK’s telecommunications infrastructure. Vodafone, which has been heavily criticised for implementing above-inflation price rises for consumers, announced last month that the company planned to cut 11,000 jobs over the next three years. The union Unite said the deal should be blocked over concerns about foreign joint ownership of a key national asset – Three UK is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison – as well as the possibility of job cuts and higher prices. The government is also likely to “call in” the deal for scrutiny under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which allow ministers to block transactions linked to important national assets if they are deemed to harm national security, as Vodafone UK has a number of government contracts. In 2016 the CMA and the European Commission blocked Three’s attempted takeover of O2, arguing that it would have risked higher prices. It had previously argued that dropping to only three networks in a country could harm consumers. The deal is likely to face close scrutiny from competition regulators, although last year the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, changed its long-held stance, saying it was now more open to consolidation in the sector.
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