Who gets the best deal from Pfizer’s proposed takeover of AstraZeneca? On the basis of today’s Business, Innovation and Skills select committee hearing with some of the key players, the answer is probably Conservative MP Brian Binley. He was very much enjoying his role in the hearing as he interrogated the boss of Pfizer, Ian Read, and his colleagues Frank D’Amelio and Jonathan Emms.
Binley managed to get the best one-liners out of the session (he’s got form: this is the MP who has in the past few years managed to describe his Prime Minister as a ‘chambermaid’ and a ‘janitor’), telling the panel that they offered ‘a lot of sales talk, but short on facts’, and accusing Read of being a ‘salesman’.
Read did talk an interesting game, insisting repeatedly that MPs could take him at his word, that ‘we do what we say’.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in